Seattle Ridge

We rode up to Seattle Ridge today to perform some weather station maintenance and to get a look at the overnight storm snow accumulations on the moto side of Turnagain. On the drive up, the good visibility and near sea-level snow line were a nice surprise and an unfamiliar sight. We found roughly 8 inches of new low-density snow in the parking lot. There were some doubts in the parking lot that the low-density snow could cover the stout crust, but we soon found that riding conditions were dramatically improved, and the uptrack to the ridge was in good shape.

Under beautiful skies, we rode over to the weather station for some rime maintenance and a camera swap. During our travel, we noted significant wind transport on the high points of Pyramid and Big Chief. There was also plenty of evidence of moderate overnight winds on Seattle Ridge, and snow accumulations varied dramatically as we traveled. After buttoning up the weather station, we rode back to the south to scout for new avalanches and dig a couple of snow pits. En route to the Triangle/ -2 Bowl, we spotted a small D1 wind slab that appeared to be human triggered on a southwest aspect in Warm-Up Bowl.

We dug two pits on a west-facing slope on a bench near -2 Bowl. The results in both of these pits were stable but the difference in snow depth between the two pits was noteworthy. Same slope, same aspect, 50 feet difference in elevation—200 cm difference in snow depth. Finding a thin spot like this is certainly possible and makes affecting the weak layers formed in December far more likely.

We observed plenty of evidence of wind transport at higher elevations throughout the day.

We dug two pits on a west facing slope on a bench near -2 Bowl. 

Snowpit #1:
HS:370 cm
Elevation:3069'
Aspect: 291° (W)
ECTx

Snowpit #2:
HS: 165 cm
Elevation: 3,003'
Aspect: 297° (W)
ECTN11@27cm↓,ECTN14@30cm↓, ECTN23@34↓