Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
Stability seemed to be markedly worse than my interpretation of the forecast. We started the day with intent to ski some steep lines. We tried some hand pits on the way up to three way peak, and we surprised by easy results. They were breaking on three distinct interfaces. First about 10 cm down, the new, dryer snow would easily sluff. Then we were getting sudden planar fractures another 10-15 cm down, and an even bigger block another 30-40 cm below that (about 50-60 cm down total). Given the fact that we were surprised by this, we decided to dig a pit and investigate further (NE, 5700, 32 degree slope, HS 285 cm). We didn't bring an ECT cord or saw, so our ECT was shoddily constructed. Nothing broke, but I'm also not entirely sure we got the back fully isolated with our ski poles. So we tried again with a CT which was easier to isolate. Still not the best constructed CT ever, but I'm certain the column was isolated. I thought I saw a hairline crack in the first 10 easy taps but wasn't completely sure. So I put a bit of pressure on the back (I mean very little), and a 60 cm block came off, which seemed to match the lowest layer in our hand pits. After this, we shifted gears to mellower terrain (although not completely out of avy terrain), and still managed to pop a few small things (detailed in "Observed Avalanches"). Skiing was highly variable, as was the snowpack in general. Seemed to be different crust structures in different aspects. Lots of cornices on ridges, not sure how old they were. Snowy in the morning and the sun eventually poked out in the afternoon. Warm and the snow got quite sticky (although not full on slush) in the afternoon.
Avalanche
Triggered small slab on small steep slope (probably 35-40 degrees). Knew this was a possibility but slope was small with limited consequences. Hard to classify, as it seemed to be recent storm snow (less than 10 cm), but definitely wet snow. W aspect, 5800. Also got a few large blocks of snow 30-40 cm deep to slide in unsupported areas above trees (no support because of the steep wall into the tree well below) late in the day. This was entirely unintentional and surprising, although luckily did not propagate further. This slipped was probably 30-35 degrees, NNW aspect, 5300.