Quick report
Traveled into the East Cabinet Mountains to continue gathering baseline information as we approach the start of our regular forecast season.
Todays objectives were:
• Get a better idea of present freezing level by looking for signs of fresh snowfall.
• Search for evidence of recent avalanche activity.
• Continue documenting general snow coverage information.
Findings:
• The Leigh Lake summer trail is completely snow free to the lake (5,144 feet)
• Continuous snowpack cover exist starting at roughly 5,800 feet. At least, this is true on shaded aspects (North & East)
• Visibility was very poor today, however a short break in the clouds allowed me to see numerous debris piles from recent large (D2) loose wet avalanches.
• I was not able to verify an exact freezing level for this area, however, I can say that it was at least 7,300 feet or greater today, as it was actively precipitating during my entire outing and I could see that the trees up to that elevation were free from recent snowfall.
Weather
- Air Temp
- not measured
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- 7500+
- Recent Snowfall
- none
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
Overcast skies, light southwest winds, and steady light rainfall throughout the day.
Snowpack
Snowpack details not observed as today my high point was 5,144 feet, and the present snowline in this area was about 5,800 feet.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2
- Type
- WL
- Aspect
- E
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 6300 ft
Consecutive days of high freezing levels and steady rainfall has initiated loose wet avalanche activity. SNOTEL stations across the region have reported 4"+ of rainfall since Thursday 11/13. • Avalanches ranged in size from small (D1) to Large (D2) • All observed slides released on slopes facing North through East. • Most of the observed slides were initiating near or directly at the base of large cliffs. • Elevation of the observed slides ranged from about 6,000-7,000 feet.