Quick report
We did not observe any avalanches on Tuesday, despite looking into large scale SW-N avalanche terrain in the S Fork of the Walla Walla. In most places, the structure is poor to fair, with weak snow (facets) near January crusts, but we are lacking a thick/heavy enough slab to produce avalanches.
Riding quality is good but not all-time, owing to some upside-down layering and track spinning if your machine punches through the 1/31 crust. Cable logging is underway in Lookingglass creek, drive with caution.
No red flags observed.Weather
- Air Temp
- 29
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- ~3500'
- Recent Snowfall
- 15
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Overcast in the morning, light flurries S-1 in early afternoon, then S2, 1"/hr on drive back through Elgin. Temps below freezing but warm, denser new snow. Calm to Light winds out of the South.
Snowpack
On E-S-W aspects above 4000', we found 6-8" of new snow above a zipper or eggshell thin crust (likely from a zap of sunshine on Sat Feb 1). Below that is another 4-6" from Friday and the 1/31 crust below that. Tests showed propagation in 3/4 tests (see below).
NW 5850' in a windward ridgeline thin snowpack. HS130. (Top down) 7cm of F hard PP, MFcr (1/31), then 10cm of 1F RGwp, then 8cm of F FC sz1.
S 5750' HS220 ECTP12 x2 dn 42 on FC sz1 below a melt-freeze crust (see pit photo and video). We used an Extended Column Test ECT since long column tests are best suited to persistent slab problems. We did not do a Compression Test (CT), but for reference, the faceted grains falling from the wall often correlates with a Sudden Collapse (SC) result in a CT.
E 5550' HS235 ECTP4 dn 20 on FC sz0.5 below the 1/31 crust. ECTX on second test. (see photo)