Williwaw Peak, Chugach State Park

At the beginning of our day, we noticed less snow coverage and widespread large surface hoar in wind-sheltered terrain. The further we got back into the valley the more snow coverage we observed. Similar to other areas in the Chugach State Park- we were looking at a wind-scoured landscape with many patches of exposed bare ground.  The majority of the snow was in gullies and high alpine bowls.  The deepest and least wind-affected snow was around Williwaw Peak and north-facing terrain on The Ramp and O'Malley Peak.  Snowpack structure was also similar to other areas in the Chugach State Park- with primarily wind-affected snow and wind slab on top of facets with developed depth hoar at higher elevations. We were not able to find any crust layers in our hand pits and pole probes. Snow surfaces varied from soft snow in wind-sheltered areas to sastrugi, breakable "wind skin" with patches of thin ice. Most of the wind-affected snow has softened from the near-surface faceting from all the cold, clear, calm weather. 

We did find two prominent older avalanche crowns- one on The NE face of O'Malley Peak and the other on the Ramp's NE face, and several over-small avalanche crowns on similar aspects that appear to have released on the same layer. The natural avalanche activity is suspected to have occurred during the January 30th north wind event or during the high wind watch and flood warning January 24th- January 25th. The weak layer was most likely to have been buried during the January 24th- January 25th weather events.