Burke Summit

With more snow and changing winds, the snowpack is presenting with more signs of instability. However, unstable and dangerous slopes may not give off obvious red flags before a large avalanche is triggered. Recent human triggered avalanches, natural avalanches, and continuously propagating snowpack tests provide ample data that the snowpack is primed to slide; all it takes is a trigger from a skier or rider traveling on or around steep terrain. 

Slab depths that are building on previously buried weak layers continue to grow from incremental loading from new snow and winds. We dug two pits on east-facing aspects and found the Valentine's Day and 1/28 surface hoar intact. There was 45cm of snow from the past 7 days above the V Day surface hoar. We had a number of failures in CTs with easy-mod force and propagation with 21 taps in an ECT. We did not experience many signs of instability until we rolled over to more north facing slopes. Once we got on a north facing aspect, we experienced shooting cracks and an audible collapse. We triggered one avalanche on a north facing aspect at 6,350 feet on a steep convex rollover. The avalanche had a crown height of 1.5-2 feet and failed on the most recent buried surface hoar (V Day).