Council Mtn

Riding quality was pretty good. Soft dependable ("hero") snow that densifies quickly below the upper soft foot (Fist-4Finger hardness). Below the soft upper foot, the middle of the snowpack is holding a couple crusts that have bonded well and has thus solidified greatly from our recent rain event up to 8,000 feet. Digging through the mid-pack can be difficult or tiring as the strength is good-Knife hard.

This snowpack is strong for this time of year. Our primary concern now is within the upper foot of the snowpack. Recent new snow is resting on weak layers that formed during our extended high pressure. Inverted temps during this period likely helped a little, but lower and shady aspects may have helped preserve weaker layers. About 4-6 inches or 10-15cm down: the old snow surface had a few different/poor characteristics depending on aspect: Sun crusts, surface hoar, and near surface facets. This loose connection was the result of our first noticeable avalanche cycle today that produced small D-1 wind slabs just below wind loaded (E, NE) ridgelines. These Natural wind slab avalanches were between 4-8 inches deep Just below the ridgeline on the east/wind loaded side.

The Sunny forecast was short lived, given way to clouds, and very light, brief snowfall. 2 test pits on NE&N aspects gave No propagation in extended column tests. The new snow is soft and loose upon loose faceted old snow that consists of facets, surface hoar, and sun crusts. We were not very aggressive as the snow cover is still thin and early season like with rocks and logs sticking out in places. Overall stability is great. Stability within the new snow interface is the suspect to watch with future storms.