Date of Observation: 04/05/2023
Name: Ben Pritchett
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Cement Creek to Hunter Creek to Star Pass
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: One small cornice-triggered D1 slab in the Timbered Hill Chutes, which looked like it ran Sunday at the end of the last warm-up. The cornice chunks and debris gouged like the snow was wet a the time.
Weather: Broken skies, flat light, cold temperatures, and nearly calm westerly winds.
Snowpack: Below treeline, the snowpack on all aspects has undergone 4 melt-freeze cycles in the last month (2x in early March, the beginning of the March 20 storm, and late March warm-up). These crusts had water percolate between them repeatedly, making for a very stout upper snowpack structure now. Even at the upper elevations of this elevation band on shady slopes where thin crusts formed, we found no weak layers of concern.