Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
- Collapsing
- isolated
Riding conditions have improved dramatically in the last 24 hours, thanks to 8-10 inches of new snow. This new accumulation was also accompanied by strong NW winds that left many wind-affected surfaces and reactive slabs in leeward terrain.
Instability was confined to wind loaded features at middle and upper elevations.Weather
- Air Temp
- 20s
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Recent Snowfall
- 25 cm
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
While there were some sun breaks throughout the day, strong W winds stayed steady. These strong winds drifted over tracks quickly through the early afternoon hours. Temps stayed cold enough and clouds stayed thick enough that solars didn't see much for moistening.
Snowpack
I found 8-10 inches of new snow and heavily wind affected surfaces as I rode up the Middle Fork of the Ahtanum. I started finding signs of drifting just above Tree Phones @ 5000 ft. These slabs were fresh, so it didn't take much time or effort to notice cracking under my sled.
Digging around on E/NE aspects along Darland Ridge, I found a favorable right-side-up structure over the AR crust from late February. Snowpack tests revealed failures around the 3/12 interface that sat 25 cm below the surface (CT 18, SP / ECTN 17 x2). Check out photos for more details. West aspects were stripped down to crust.