Teanaway River Drainage

The snow coverage at lower elevations is relatively thin, but thankfully, it's still enough for straightforward travel despite patches of bare ground. We got out to investigate how the recent snow was bonding with the old snow surfaces and the Early February Crust. We were also interested in the extent of wind drifting with the prolonged easterly winds of the past few days. At lower elevations, we found little snow over the Early February Crust (EFC). At mid and upper elevations, we found more pleasant conditions with more snow over the EFC in sheltered terrain with deep drifts and a large, natural wind slab avalanche just below the ridge at 6200ft. There is weak snow above the EFC and a thin crust recently buried on 2/14. 

Warming temperatures were a bit of a surprise. The surface snow became moist, and rollerballs and pinwheels were widespread on our descent. 

Below about 4800ft, there was just 1-2cm of snow over the Early February Crust (EFC), with little to none at the trailhead at 2800ft. Above 4800ft recent snow depths increased to 10-20cm in sheltered terrain. We found around 3cm of 1-2mm faceted snow above the EFC below a thin crust(2/14) with 10-15cm of storm snow above that. The snow above this thin, breakable crust was also beginning to facet and weaken. Hand sheers and shovel tilt tests failed easily above this thin crust (2/14). 

The recent snow was dry to start the day but became moist with warming temperatures.