St. Regis Basin

Lots of upper snowpack settling and consolidation in the last few days. We also did not observe any obvious signs of cracking or collapsing, even when using small test slopes near ridges. The lower-density surface snow was also reluctant to sluff from ski pressure. A large glide crack on an east-facing slope promoted a moment of pause as we haven't seen the typical weather conditions to contribute to these cracks opening up. We find ourselves back in the low-probability, high-consequence regime till the next round of snowfall over the weekend. Continue to make appropriate terrain selections based on your snowpack and avalanche observation findings.

A large glide crack has opened up on an east-facing slope around 6,300 feet in the St Regis Basin. This is the same slope where a crack opened last season, then produced a size 3 avalanche.

Along our route, and in pits on east and west aspects at roughly 6,350', we found a mostly right side up snowpack with December crusts becoming less reactive. We did find a subtle grapple layer at a new/old snow interface from the last storm, 40-50cm from surface, that did not show a propensity for propagation but is worth keeping an eye on with the next loading event. 

Interestingly, we also found a gaping glide crack at 6,300' on an east aspect which has opened since Monday. This occurred in the same location as a glide avalanche that we recorded in February last year.