Date of Observation: 03/10/2022
Name: Zach Kinler
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Kebler Pass trailhead to Elk Creek, toured up ridge above the creek. 9,000 ft-10,500 ft
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: No new avalanches observed on this tour. Very limited views into the surrounding upper elevation terrain.
Weather: Broken skies and higher clouds gave way to low clouds, moderate snow and some wind around 2:30 as a squall moved in. Temps remained quite chilly, felt more like January than March.
Snowpack: Walked around and jumped on a number of below tree line, northeasterly start zones, most of which avalanched early in the late February cycle. Generally, a soft 60-70 cm slab is resting on the bed surfaces in this zone. Bed surfaces themselves were a variably thick 1 finger hard crust capping 4 finger, 2 mm facets which do appear to be gaining strength. Very few signs of instability were observed underfoot or in a test pit other than 1 small leeward feature which had around 2ft of drifted snow and produced some small cracks in the new snow. No collapses or cracking were observed on the deeper weak layers on either slopes that avalanched or in-tact slopes.
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- Small cracking in the recently drifted new snow
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- The “sandbox layer” is showing signs of rounding and sintering of grains.
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- Test pit from a slope that avalanched early during the late Feb cycle.
