Haines Pass Kusawak Peak Area

CRS (plus) sled course based out of Chuck Creek. Group travelled across highway to unnamed bowl south of Kusawak Peak. From the high point of our day we could see 3 guardsman to the south. Even the 2002 tundra 300 made it ! Observed a couple of size 1 + and 2 slab avalanches at around 1900 m on a SW aspect and numerous small to medium loose wet avalanches on various aspects. Slab avalanches were a few days old. Loose wet avalanches fresh. Overall quite a different snow pack than the whitepass. See snowpack section for more info.

Took the opportunity to dig a pit while the group was playing on some mellow jumps - about 10 cms 4F heavy powder over a solid 1F slab layer from top to bottom with one exception. Found a layer of decomposing facets(?) at about 40 cm down. 2 x CTM8 on this layer. Thinking that this layer might have been the cause of the slab avalanches we observed at 1900 m. The snow pack was fairly well bridged at our location and we did not get it to react with numerous sled tests but we thought that it would be good to avoid a heavy load (sled jump) on anything steeper – especially convex and steeper.