Point 6

We skinned up Point 6 to investigate two naturally triggered avalanches on wind-loaded east aspects. At the top we experienced extreme wind speeds, making travel difficult. Elsewhere wind speeds were moderate from the west with strong gusts. While skinning along the ridge, I was able to remote-trigger a wind slab avalanche similar to the two naturals. All avalanches were D1 or D1.5 with crowns a foot to a foot and a half deep. 

We dug two quick pits on the same wind loaded aspect and found no persistent weak layers - just layers of wind slabs.

On a sheltered northwest aspect we found both buried persistent weak layers and got unstable test results on the upper layer, which was about a foot deep.

We gave slopes over 30 degrees a wide berth today.

We observed two natural wind slab avalanches and triggered one. All were D1 or D1.5 in size and occurred on east aspects. There was cracking in wind loaded ares.

In wind-loaded areas there was a foot to a foot and a half of new soft wind slab. We did not find buried surface hoar in these locations, as it was likely destroyed by the wind before burial.

In sheltered areas we found the Feb 14 surface hoar buried 1 foot (30 cm) down. We got a propagating test result on this layer (ECTP13) on a NW aspect at 7000 feet. In this same pit we found facets from the January Drought buried 1.5 feet (47cm) deep.

There was a very thin crust near the bottom of the new storm snow buried just over half a foot (15cm) deep. We suspect this was a rain or rime crust from the start of the storm. It currently has no effect on the snowpack, but it is interesting to note and could act as a good marker layer in the future.