Baker Ck

I saw several fresh avalanches big enough to bury people. I was only out for a short afternoon field mission in mediocre visibility. All observed slides released primarily on NW aspects (W-NW-N) between 8600-9300'. There were probably other fresh avalanches I was not able to see. Winds on Wednesday night and Thurs morning loaded many slopes above 9000' and stiffened the snow surface on some slopes above 8500'. 

Cracks in wind drifts only traveled up to 3 feet. Collapsing was kind of N/A: I was mostly in areas with some tracks from today or previous sled or ski traffic.

HN=15cm (6") at parking lot, about 20cm (8") at 8000' at summer trailhead, and 25cm (10") in sheltered terrain near the middle-upper elevation transition. 

Wind effects: The wind affected a lot of middle elevation terrain where I traveled. There was no new snow in the trees on SE-S-SW-W aspects above about 8200'. Wind had stiffened many snow surfaces above 8500'. Between 8500-9000', there was significant cross-loading near prominent middle-elevation terrain features and punchy wind skins/crusts and windboard here and there. On ridgelines 9000-9300', there were 1-2 ft wind slabs on the lee sides, scoured crusts on the windward sides, and sastrugi in places. I didn't get any wind slabs to release remotely or crack extensively, but I was solo and didn't jump on the "sweet spots" or push the issue. 

2/14 interface: Things looked pretty good on S-SW (hard 1-3cm crusts), iffy on margins (crust + FC) and shady slopes (FC). I didn't get clean shears in hand pits on solars, but some observed avalanches on shady aspects appeared to fail on this layer. Also, there was a mid-storm interface that produced some shears on solars, about halfway through Wednesday night's storm snow.

2/1: 30-60cm down, no clean shears and I couldn't get it to fail cleanly in handpits or when ski or sled cutting above previous sled or ski tracks. 

1/6: It's looking a little better on solars (multiple crust+FC sandwich), but it's still ugly looking. No direct observations on shady slopes other than low elevations - improving but still poor structure on E aspect at lower elevation. No stability tests performed due to limited time in the field.