Skyline Lake to Tye Peak

It was a stormy, windy day. There were a few signs of instability and wind slabs forming. Overall, there wasn't a lot of avalanche hazard, but enough to confirm the avalanche forecast. We found over 2 feet of recent snow from the past week and great travel conditions.

Minor cracking in fresh wind slabs at 5,280ft on Tye Peak

5cm of new snow rested on mostly dry recent storm snow. Low-elevation SE-SW held crusts from 3/16 below the new snow. Snow surfaces got moist by mid-afternoon on some SE-SW slopes. Otherwise, surfaces remained dry above 4,000ft.

The most notable observations were active wind loading and cornice formation. See wind slab problem.

The height of snow ranged from 230-350cm. We found 75-85cm of settled storm snow since 3/9. Overall, the upper snowpack is well-bonded and progressively gets harder with depth. Aside from the most sun-exposed SE-SW, we found more dry snow than anticipated. Moist layers in the storm snow were subtle and could only be detected with close observation. See profile image.

Any storm instabilities from the past week appear to have been short-lived. We didn't find any interfaces that were problematic while slope testing. However, we noticed some unique variability in the hardness and moisture content of recent snow as we moved through the terrain. This seemed to change based on aspect, elevation, and location relative to the Cascade crest and other terrain features that create microclimates. For example, the southeast slopes of Tye Peak were mostly dry and free of crusts in the upper snowpack while similar aspects near Skyline Lake were moist with notable crusts. Equally puzzling, at 5,350ft NE, we found slightly moist snow ~20cm below the dry surface. As we descended this aspect, we no longer noticed the moist layer.