Lost Trail periphery

Today, the primary objective was to look at how wet the snow has gotten, especially in the middle of the snowpack to estimate how many days of cool temperatures it will take to freeze up and eliminate wet slab concerns. The secondary objective was to look around for the known PWL of the buried crust on northern aspects.

Dry snow:

The persistent weak layer is still present but unreactive to skiers. I dug down to look for the crystal type above the crust in multiple areas and found rounding facets with no evidence of old surface hoar. What is alarming is how reactive the weak layer was in compression tests today, even on 38 degree slopes with ski tracks from the past 24 hours. Triggering an avalanche seems difficult unless you find a shallow trigger or isolated reactive area, but if you do, there is still potential for larger avalanches. Skiers have continued to test many slopes, with the only avalanche being the accident from last week.

Wet snow:

It will take 36 hours+ of sustained cold temperatures to fully cool the snowpack, even at upper elevation on solar aspects. All slopes had a superficial refreeze, but this caps some very wet snow up to 3 feet in depth.

All slopes that could run with a wet loose off of rocks or in steeper terrain have gone through a wet loose cycle. What remains are the 30-38ish degree slopes holding wet unsupportable snow that have not yet avalanched.

No areas of low elevation have enough snow to produce an avalanche and most south and west aspects at mid elevation have melted to the point of minimal avalanche concern.

No signs of instability observed.