Date of Observation: 12/14/2022
Name: Evan Ross Zach Kinler
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Slate River Valley. NE 9,000-10,800.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A recent large avalanche in the Climax Chutes that likely ran last night. At 10am the crown was blown back in while the avalanche debris looked fresh. This was a cross-loaded terrain feature below 10,800ft.
Weather: Cold. Generally, calm wind except for a few gusts down in the open valley. Mostly cloudy. A few flakes, but no real accumulation.
Snowpack: Obvious signs of instability were rare. A few collapses with notable effort and a couple of localized shooting cracks.
HS varied between about 90cm to 135cm on average. We targeted two test profiles on NE aspects, one with an HS of 90cm at 10,000ft and one with an HS of 125cm at 10,700ft. In both locations the snowpack structure was poor. Thick slabs to 1F or P, over F to F+ November Facets. The change in grain size at the interface was about 1.5mm. ECT results were ECTP22 in the lower location and ECTX at the upper location where it took several full-strength whacks after the standard test to get through the slab and produce a failure.
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