Eddies

It was a beautiful spring day with cold temps and very warm sunshine. Winds were calm, and visibility was good, but clouds built up throughout the day. The ski conditions were excellent. There was a layer of surface hoar on the surface (2-4 mm) up to our high point around 2600'. There was a concerning layer of facets about 1.5 to 2' deep that was easy to feel with a ski pole probe. That layer failed and propagated in our pit, but it took a lot of force beyond the normal taps of the test (ECT P 30+). Overall, the interface between the latest storm snow and the old snow surface seems to be less reactive now that we are a few days out from the storm. But that lower weak layer has a concerning structure and could produce larger avalanches. 

We dug a pit at 2200' off the skin track on the way up. We found a small layer of facets at the interface of the last storm that failed in a compression test but did not propagate in the extended column test. The lower facet layer, about 18" deep (45 cm) at the 3.6 interface, seemed more concerning in terms of structure. With more advanced facets sitting above a thick melt freeze crust. This layer failed with more force in the compression test (CT 23) and had a notable collapse. In the extended column test, this layer failed after the scope of the test (ECT P 30+) but propagated across the column with a notable collapse. You could feel the lower facet layer with ski pole probing. Overall, the snowpack had concerning structure with the two facet layers in the upper snowpack, but did not have very concerning results in the snowpit tests. The interface with the most recent storm snow seemed much less reactive than over the weekend when there were multiple human-triggered avalanches and widespread collapsing on that layer.