Burgundy Bowl - West Rattlesnake

Numerous wet avalanche released within the last few days of exceptionally warm weather. The snow marginally refroze overnight and was rapidly warming throughout the day. We still found dry and weak faceted snow at the ground on an E aspect and got propagation in an extended column test. Most slopes capable of avalanching did so however some lingering northerly aspects are still suspect as weather continues to be especially warm in the coming days.

The cracking and collapsing were isolated to open areas on the west facing ridgeline we skinned up along Burgundy Bowl. But a few of the collapses were large and the cracking was extensive. We observed extensive wet snow avalanches on all aspects.

The snowpack had a marginal refreeze overnight. Open terrain was hard and refrozen on the surface but did not freeze super hard just below the surface. In treewells, the snow did not refreeze. By mid-morning, snow that was being hit by the sun was already very warm and wet. Upon our return in the afternoon, snow in the shade had gotten more soft and warm.

We dug a snowpit on an east aspect at 7900'. The depth of this pit was 38" (96cm). In this pit we found wet snow at the surface and a slab of 1F hard moist snow approximately halfway down. A layer of rounding buried surface hoar was found just below this slab. And below this layer was more dry, weak faceted snow. We performed two extended column tests; the first resulted in moderate propagation on the layer of buried surface hoar (ECTP15) and the second test had no result (ECTX).

We also observed runnels of water at the surface of the snow as well as active snowmelt on many aspects. Most notably, we observed numerous wet avalanches on all aspects.