Copper

Primary concern here was the new snow and the variety of weak surfaces that it fell on. Widespread natural avalanche activity had already occurred by my visit here in the afternoon/evening. I also remotely triggered several small pockets involving this snow in gently winded terrain. 

We have little feedback on how 2/1 dealt with this loading, but this layer is still on my problem list and continues to drive my terrain selection. The slab over this weak layer is now down roughly 80-100cm, and any avalanche that broke down onto that layer would be large and destructive. 

I experienced many localized collapses that were failing at the base of the new snow (2/24 interface). These were most common in winded terrain, but occurred in sheltered terrain as well. Cracking was occasionally but not always associated with this. I remotely triggered several small pockets (D1) that failed on this interface. These failed at a distance of 150 + feet from the triggering location.

HST: 25-30cm at highway level, increasing to 45+ cm near the top of Copper. Snow was generally right-side-up, though there was a subtle density inversion just above the base of the storm snow. 

Driving to the trailhead was a western, white-out experience. There was a lot of wind transport evident and ongoing along the highway corridor, with about 1.5 lanes open. Lots of snow got redistributed at all elevations during this storm.