Picture Lake Couloir - Missions
Quick report
Observed no avalanche signs on north aspects. No whumping. South and east aspects showed wet slide history from previous days. Agreed at the lake at 1130 that 1pm was our turn around time due to fears of warming. As w exited, warming was a big concern, and the snow became warmer and more inclined to slide as time went on and elevation was reduced.
Avalanche
Toured/fought our way up to Lucifer Lake, which was a monumental task due to the sun affected snow between the falls and Lucifer Lake. Scaled objectives back due to the time it took to get up to the lake. Skiied a north facing coulior above picture lake. Dug a pit at about 7200 feet on a north aspect at the base of the line. Observed total snow depth was more than our 300cm pole - 6-8 inches of fresh snow which was starting to bond to the old snow layer. Observed a crust layer with faceting snow beneath it about 1.5 feet down. Shovel Shear test popped the fresh snow easily, the ice crust was more of a struggle. There was another layer down about 4 feet which popped on the shovel shear test. After seeing the SST, performed an ECT and got ECTN - no propagation on anything. As we climbed, the new snow had been blown off, and from about 7500 on, snow surface was wind scoured.