Quick Report

Beauty day to be out, checking on the home zone. The wind last week built new cornices and formed wind slabs at TL on E aspects. Wind effect extends well below tree line, and there were several trees down on the road in. ~10cm of new snow, less than reported further West. Ski quality was good in sheltered, low angle terrain, on E-NE aspects. Surface snow was becoming moist in the sun, and we saw numerous small wet loose avalanches from steep South facing terrain.

Cornice drop onto 35+ degree slope. Produced a large crack, ~20m long, but no avalanche. The failure plane was facets on a melt-freeze crust down 45cm. At this location (E aspect, 2300m) top 5cm becoming moist. Mid-Feb persistent weak layer is down 45cm soft and consists of 1cm of facets (2mm) on a 2-3cm thick melt-freeze crust. Total height of snow was 170cm.