Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
- Collapsing
- isolated
-The most recent melt-freeze crust from Monday (Feb. 26) on the Canyon floor thinned out and disappeared around 4800’. This now has about 2-4” of wet snow on top. • About a foot of recent snow above 5500’ with heavy wind loading from the SW winds. • Fresh wind slabs 1-4+ feet thick were observed above 6000’, primarily on N thru E aspects. Limited cracking from ski cuts in these slabs. • Observed one audible collapse on the SE ridge about 6200’ elevation. • We dug a snow pit within 50 yards of the recent hard slab crown in Shed 7 West (pit profile). We could not safely access the crown today. o Total snow depth was about 69” with the early Feb. facet layer buried about 35” down. o Stability tests results were variable with a mix of stable and unstable results. o We suspect the failure layer of the nearby avalanche was the layer of facets above the Feb. 3rd crust.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- intense
- Rain Elevation
- 6000
- Recent Snowfall
- 25
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
• Mostly overcast with occasional broken skies in the afternoon. • No precipitation all day until about sunrise when a rain/snow mix began on the Canyon floor. • Very windy, sustained moderate winds from the SW with strong to extreme gusts. • Wind loading was intense with several hundred-foot-long plumes of snow off the ridge crests above 6000’ at times. • Freezing levels climbed throughout the day reaching just above 6000’ by late afternoon.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2.5 R2
- Type
- HS
- Count
- 5
- Aspect
- SE
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 6500 ft
• Several large hard slab avalanches observed today including. This all likely ran last night. • For many events it appeared that a cornice fall, and/or a wind slab near the ridge crest above may have triggered these larger avalanches. We suspect the failure layer to be the facets above the Feb. 3rd crust. -More details under the avalanche tabs