Quick report
Recent D1 wet loose avalanches were observed on steep northern and western aspects where enough soft, sticky snow could be entrained by small triggers falling from trees or cornices. I did trigger medium sized (about a foot tall) pinwheels and small roller balls from my ski tracks in the afternoon. I did not observe cracking, collapsing, crowns or slab activity today.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 42
- Cloud Cover
- scattered
- Wind Loading
- light
- Rain Elevation
- 4200 on Southern aspects
- Recent Snowfall
- 5
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Scattered clouds gave some relief from a hot sun and warm temps as the day progressed and ended on a cloudy note. Winds were calm and temps were relatively warm throughout the day.
Snowpack
Around 9:30am, we observed surface hoar on all aspects up to 1cm in size and a widespread, easily breakable crust which broke down quickly in the sun and warm temps. The surface hoar was gone from warm, sunny slopes by midday but persisted on cooler, shaded slopes.
Generally speaking, the southern aspects hold a spring-like, isothermic and wet snowpack where it wasn't scoured to the ground. The northern aspects hold a significantly deeper snowpack, locked up by buried and variably hard crusts topped with a couple inches of soft snow that is getting sticky where there is sun and staying surprisingly powdery in the shade. This soft northern snow is deeper and well preserved where it was drifted over the past couple weeks and sits over a generally supportable but textured and crumbly crust. While this buried crust was a bit of a headache for skinning in steeper and shady spots on northern and western aspects, we found it perfect for bootpacking where the sun was shining and the snow wasn't too deep. We observed few signs of instability but, as expected, the midday sun and warm temps changed the snow surface. Shallow wet loose debris, roller balls, and pinwheels started moving on south facing slopes later in the day as a result of skin tracks and ski cuts.