Quick report
1/29 was sunny and warm, many wet loose avalanches were observed. That afternoon the saturated surface snow began to cool and harden to a supportable melt-freeze crust in most areas. The crust was 1-2 inches thick. Over the next two days there was enough cloud cover and breeze to keep the crust mostly supportable, but it did soften on solar aspects mid day. All recorded temperatures during the three days were above freezing. Rain runnels were observed up to 8800 feet.
Weather
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
1/29; sunny and warm with calm winds, zero precip. 1/30; partly sunny, light winds from the south, above freezing temperatures, zero precip. 1/31; partly sunny, moderate south winds, above freezing temperatures, zero precip.
Snowpack
a 1-2 inch supportable crust now covers most of the snowpack at treeline and above. On 1/31; 5 to 8 mm surface hoar was observed in many locations on northern aspects in sheltered areas. The January 4 layer is down 100 to 160cm and has not been propagating in ECTs over the last 3 days. In areas where we dug to ground basal facets and depth hoar were present. Height of snow averages 200cm.
Avalanche
On 1/29 we observed many wet loose avalanches sizes D1, D2, and D3. Most were located on southern aspects, but we did see a few on North aspects as well. The largest wet loose avalanches were located on Granite Mt, sliding over 1500 vertical feet to valley bottom and included powder clouds. No avalanches were observed after 1/29.