Canyon Creek

This was a warm spring day with stellar heavy snow riding, which was dry, moist or wet depending on the aspect and time of day. Rollerballs had run the previous day from all steep, rocky areas on all aspects. There were a few small wet loose avalanches from today and the day prior. No slab avalanches were seen or triggered where we traveled- and plenty of slope testing was being done. 

Small wet loose avalanches were the only activity we saw. Many were from the previous day, but a few new ones were from today. All were natural except for one human-triggered one that we saw.

Variable snow cover began at about 3000ft and it became more consistent above 4000ft. At 4500ft there was about 150cm of snow, and 5500ft and up there was about a probe's length, 300cm, give or take depending on wind distribution and aspect. 

On shady slopes, we found dry snow in the morning, and there was a soft surface crust from a bit of warming the previous day that wasn't a problem at all for riding. There was the tiniest sliver of true north that had dry, soft snow at the surface with no crust. Boot penetration in these areas, where there was a completely dry snowpack, was about 20cm. 

There was an obvious shift throughout the day of east-facing moistening of snow surfaces in the morning, to south midday, and then west in the afternoon. Given the intense spring sun, it didn't take long for surfaces to get wet and heavy. Wetting where we traveled seemed mainly limited to the top few inches, although snow layers were moist beneath this, for at least the top foot.

We found a notable crust everywhere we rode, 50cm deep at 4500ft and closer to 70cm at 6000ft. At lower elevations and steep, sunny slopes, snow was a little shallower and moist down to the crust.

We didn't find any alarming weaknesses in any of the layers above the crust. Where I dug at 6000ft, I found a few stubborn weaknesses 20 ad 30cm deep (8 and 12 inches), which was from breaks between the many storms, and where it appears a few slab avalanches have occurred in recent days, although none were triggered here. I searched for any persistent layers at these interfaces, and only found decomposing forms. The snow surface on shady aspects, however, had an impressive mix of surface hoar and near surface facets.