Mt. Emmons

Today's objective was just to get up high and document the pattern of recent natural avalanches.  There were too many clouds to get a good look into the Ruby Range, but numerous large avalanches ran in the Axtell, Redwell areas near and above treeline.  About 5 of these were hard persistent slabs failing on old weak layers (Jan 5 or older); 4 on rocky, shallow NW aspects in Redwell Basin that ran during the storm and one step down in Axtell's Green Lake Bowl (~D2.5 or D3) that ran after the snowfall ended sometime this morning.   There were a handful of large storm slabs as well, from north to east aspects.  Schuykill Ridge appeared to remain largely intact. There were two long-running slabs out of Climax Chutes that ran after I surveyed that area last night at 5 p.m.  

Drifted slopes were reactive here; evidenced by natural activity and audible collapses below 18" to 24" slabs.  The last 6" or so of the storm fell without much wind, camouflaging the usual visual clues we use to identify drifted features.  The most recent snow was also very sluffy, dozens of small loose dry avalanches ran last night and today with solar input.  In wind-protected terrain below treeline, storm totals were about 12" and we didn't produce any obvious signs of instability on steep features except sluffing.