Seven Sisters

Variable surface textures, pow/MFcr/soft windslab/hardwind slab on top of a 3-15cm thick MFcr about 50-60cm into snowpack. A few hand shears showed the lower slab was poorly bonded to crust due to a surface hoar/facet combo sitting on top of it in some areas. That seems to be the bed surface the large avalanche in the picture ran on. Bed surface is mostly reloaded in that area. (This is not a recent avalanche, just an observation about the bed surface reloading ? )

We are on the Coast this week! Today we checked out a new zone for us called Trapper Mountain. It was a warm day with slushy above zero temps at the parking lot. Once we got above 1300 meters the snow was dry and cold still, and there was about 30cm of dry snow over last weeks supportive rain crust. We saw evidence of the avalanche cycle from last weeks warming but no new avalanches. We dug on a N facing slope at 1500m. We were unable to cut through the firm snow with our cord to complete an Extended Column Test (ECT)! Compression tests showed moderate resistant planar results down 30 cm at the crust interface.

Skied in the headwaters of Williams Creek below Chist Peak. Temperatures were mild, winds light, sky overcast. In the alpine ski pen 10-15cm old powder on north facing slopes, nil on south facing. Recent cornice triggered avalanches on north aspects to size 2. Debris ran far out onto gentle terrain. Entraining surface snow and appearing to not step down. We moved fast when under the big ones and gave a wide birth when above.