Date of Observation: 12/19/2021
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Various aspects of Ohio Peak from 9500 to 12200 ft.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few harmless loose snow avalanches trigged by solar warming on southerly aspects.
Weather: Light winds, clear skies. Temps felt cold in the shade, mild in the sun.
Snowpack: No signs of instability all day (for a change). Persistent slab problem feels deep and stubborn here in wind protected terrain, HS averaged about 160 cm. The 12/15 surface hoar layer is preserved below about 30 cm of recent snow and is already producing propagating results in column tests. We found this layer on northerly facing, sparse glades up to about 10,600 ft, and not above that. There is also surface hoar on the snow surface in a similar distribution. Apart from wind board on some slopes above treeline, the snow surface is low density on northerly aspects and I expect it will continue faceting over the next few days. Snow surfaces were getting a little moist on steep southerlies.
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- Recently buried surface hoar layer starting to propagate in pits below about a foot of snow. This layer was only found below treeline on shady aspects.
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- A recentely wind scoured northwest facing slope. This structure isn’t concerning right now, but if it got reloaded, the basal facets would be an issue.
