Blow Me Downs

Challenging visibility kept us in a conservative mindset today. Cautious travel needed around creeks and river crossings, as there are new snow bridges formed that are often unsupportive. Soft snow and good snowmobiling in protected areas at lower elevations. Wind effected, and variable surface conditions at upper elevations. Our test pit today was at 450 m, an East facing slope. We found 70 cm of 1F snow, sitting on top of the prominent mid March rain crust. Generally, we have been seeing good bonding between the rain crust and snow above, but in this pit today we had an ECT 22, down 70 cm, SC. Results were not repeatable in additional tests, but we did detect a weaker layer on top of the rain crust which was the cause of the failure. Definitely worth keeping an eye out for before committing to bigger slopes. No new or recent avalanches observed today.