Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
We had a lovely day out in the Swans with 8+" of stable new snow and even a brief sucker hole of blue skies. We skinned/skied SW, W, NW, and N aspects between 4k' and 6900' on slopes up to 40* and primarily only observed localized (around skis) cracking in the surface 2-4" of snow. We observed longer shooting (~50') cracks twice during our tour within the surface 4" of snow and concluded that these were either due to a touch more wind (at ridgetop) and warmer temperatures (at 5300' post-small storm slab avalanche) consolidating surface snow. We couldn't feel the late January crusts skiing, but still battled it skinning... and there appears to be a double crust formed above the late-January crust from the mid-week sunshine on SW and S aspects (didn't get on anything E today).
Avalanche
- Size
- D1 R2
- Type
- SS
- Aspect
- NW
- Trigger
- AS
- Elevation
- 5300 ft
We triggered a few small sluffs within the new snow but they were predictable, slow moving, and didn't travel far. We also triggered one small storm slab (SS-ASc-D1-R2 50'w x 150'l x 8"d) at 5300' NW 38* slope on our exit that broke on that broke at our feet on the old snow/new snow interface.