Observation: Silver Fork

My weather forecast from the advisory was pretty much a bust with below expected snowfall during the day and lighter winds as well. A MODERATE avalanche danger barely held from what I found in my field observations.

First, the new snow was quite stubborn and not very responsive to any tests. My partner and I were able to get a small wind drift to crack out and run perhaps 300 vertical feet. This would not have posed much threat to a person getting caught in it by accident.

Second, I did not find any northerly slopes where the old facets near the ground posed much threat. What I did find mainly was damp facets that were non reactive to tests. I feel it's close to the time to drop this avalanche problem from the advisories. I think that this issue if very isolated at this point.

Aside from the drift along the ridgeline that we were able to prod enough to release, we experienced no collapsing or cracking. On the steeper slopes, sluff management had to be performed because of the loose graupel that you would get rolling with you. This really didn't pose much threat, more just something to avoid to keep a nice ski decent going.

Lots of rimed grains. It seemed like 5" new was a good average with a bit more in places that were drifted in.