Quick report
Saw a few small point releases from the last several days fanning out from rock bands. They were shallow and did not entrain much snow (see photo). I did not observe any significant new wet loose avalanches today. Even majority west facing slopes at peak sun (1300-1600) stayed cool below the surface in this area. No roller balls, pinwheels or more benign skin glopping today. While I could make a snowball out of this snow, I could not squeeze water out of it and did not see any wet loose instabilities off my skintrack, descent or rocks on a west facing slope.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 33
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Recent Snowfall
- NO
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Few clouds, calm winds today. Solar input was strong, but surface temperatures stayed cool.
Snowpack
On solar aspects at lower elevations, a breakable crust was the theme and and the snowmachine uptrack was frozen and slick. Just a slight tilt to polar aspects, boot top (~30cm) of soft, faceted snow. By 1600, surfaces in the top 10cm were generally moist and soft, and firm underneath on solar aspects. Above 3,500', snow in shady aspects was quite soft and deeper feeling than 30cm. West facing ramp was soft and smooth with no wet instabilities at 1600.
Observed some cornicing and previous wind re-loading on the E. facing bowl off of Stairstep (see photo). Note that this portion of the headwall previously avalanched this season and likely has a similar structure to the N. facing avalanche I went to observe. See the avalanche section for more detail on this ~3/21 Stairstep persistent slab.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1.5
- Type
- SS
- Aspect
- N
- Elevation
- 3800 ft
D1.5 persistent slab on Stairstep E bowl headwall on a N. aspect. Trigger unknown. Click on avalanche for more information.