Avalanches: 2 natural slab avalanches on NE aspects NTL, a D2 and D1.5. From the ridgeline, about 6 soft slab avalanches were skier triggered, ran on the storm interface, 1 to 2 feet thick. Most failed on buried surface hoar, a couple also failed on near surface facets. Two were D2 in size. The largest propagated 600 feet across a slope and down a ridgeline, and ran 800 vertical feet, about 18″ deep. Cornices were also touchy; we easily triggered 3 or 4 from a distance, and it looked like one failed naturally or was triggered by a group in front of us.  Skier triggered some minor pockets on steep rollovers below treeline, failing on surface hoar layer 8-10″ deep.
Weather: S-1 to S1, about 2″ of accumulation. Moderate SW winds and snow transport, with brief gusts of intense transport. Overcast skies.
Snowpack: ~10″ of storm snow below treeline.  Storm slabs up to 3 ft thick near treeline, up to 4F in hardness in heavily windloaded features. Observed several shooting cracks an one muffled collapse. Storm interface is either near surface facets or surface hoar, varies from slope to slope.

Skier triggered soft slab, ~600 feet of across and down ridge propagation. Skier top right for scale. SS-AS-R2-D2-I.

SS-AS-R2-D2-I

Touchy cornices. Give em a wide berth.

D1.5 soft slab. NE aspect NTL.

Checking out an 18-24″ crown on a north aspect NTL. Failed on surface hoar.

Natural D1.5 soft slab. NE aspect NTL.

Large cornice fall….looked to be skier triggered by group in front of us.

Buried surface hoar: Culprit weak layer in a lot of the slides observed today.

Minor cracking and small slabs below treeline, on surface hoar

Natural on Climax Chutes, debris hit valley floor. SS-N-R1-D2-I

Natural on Climax Chutes. SS-N-R1-D2-I

Shooting crack. 50 feet long. 2 to 3 feet deep. Not quiet steep enough to slide.

Avalanches: none seen but vis was spotty, got one wind loaded pocket 16 inches deep 30 feet wide to pull out on a 35-degree slope but didn’t go anywhere due to terrain characteristics.
Weather: snowing off and on, at times rather heavily. wind gusts out of the southwest transporting snow and loading top of rollers with wind lips forming in areas higher in basin
Snowpack: ski pen 16-18 inches, light and fluffy but dense and compacted in more open areas

Avalanches:
Weather:
Snowpack: OK. I did not go out at 5:30. Sorry. Got tired of it- wallowing around in the dark trying to figure out if there was snow. –And there is with 10″ new (6″ overnight) and 0.66″ of water content. Snowpack is at winters deepest of 50″. Currently overcast with light snow and 17F. Only a light wind but every once in a while a gust to remind us of how miserable it will be when the wind starts back up. billy

Avalanches: A few small windslab avalanches on ski cuts D1’s 20-30 cm’s deep, 1 slide 50 cm’s but on a very loaded convexity in Moonrise R.
Weather: Snowing throughout the day with strong SW winds and extreme gusts up high.
Snowpack: Still feeling old snow surface on some runs and new snow went from deep to scoured on same run in places! Isolated wind slabs in higher elevation west facing cross loaded features.

Avalanches: We skier triggered numerous soft slabs breaking on the storm interface near treeline, 10″ to 18″ thick, D1 to D1.5 in size, although one was in long, consequential terrain and entrained enough snow to be a D2. See photos. These broke in both wind affected and relatively wind-free areas. The latter slabs were somewhat surprising because the slab was so incohesive and didn’t produce signs of instability or results in column tests. Just enough of a very soft slab over fragile facets to propagate about 100 feet wide.
Weather: Overcast skies and S2. At ridgeline near treeline, Strong SW gusts with intense snow transport at times, with lulls of light winds between. Minimal transport or wind affect below treeline.
Snowpack: Below treeline: 6″ of low density snow over 1-2cm melt-freeze crusts over facets on southerlies and over near surface facets on northerlies. Shallow sluffing on steep terrain, no slab formation yet or signs of instability.

Near treeline: 12″ of low density snow in wind-sheltered areas; drifts up to 18″ thick, either on firm wind board or near surface facets on northerlies and meltfreeze crust over facets on southerlies. Moderate cracking in wind-loaded areas. No instabilities observed on a steep southerly aspect. Touchy storm instabilities on northerly slopes breaking on the storm interface.

NE aspect NTL. Wind slab near a cornice, quickly tapered in depth below the ridge. Ran on firm wind packed rounds (aka wind board).

Pink hat for scale.

NE aspect NTL. Small, skier triggered pockets in wind drifted features.

NE aspect NTL. Skier triggered soft slab, 12″ deep, on storm interface (near surface facets), in a relatively wind protected area.

Same crown looking up.

Same slide, pulled out more slab as it ran down. SS-AS-R2-D2-I

Avalanches: Skier triggered 3 soft slabs on the SH layer. Each slide was 20-25 cms deep, near or below treeline, 20-40 feet wide, running very fast and far but the biggest was D1.5 at best. Interestingly the first one (7 Bowls) was remotely triggered from about 150′ uphill of the crown
3x SS-AS-R1-D1-I
Also notices extensive crowns in the craggy terrain above friendly finish (see photo). not great vis but looked fresh. Perhaps wind slabs releases this morning?
Weather: Light to moderate snow (S1 with period of S2) throughout the afternoon with very little wind near and below treeline. Chilly temps in the low 20’s.
Snowpack: 20-25cms of new snow, very light density with minimal slab formation. Reactive surface hoar layer under the new snow in both protected and open areas. SH resting on a very thin, ~4F temperature crust below todays new snow.

crown

Looking up at the slide

P1021460

P1021461

P1021462

P1021463

Avalanches: NA. No instabilities.
Weather: S1 with 10 minute periods of s-1. Light winds from West and NW on ridge top. Minimal wind loading.
Snowpack: Between 10 and 15cm (4 to 6 inches) in past 24 hours. Cornice has developed over the main bowl.

Avalanches:
Weather: Moderate snow turning light again with a light density. The 24 hour total is 7″ new snow and 0.35″ water with 45″ on the ground. Light SW wind with obscured cloud cover as temp. has not moved much at all ranging between 15 and 18F overnight.
Snowpack:

Avalanches: NA
Weather: S-1 transitioning to obscured skies. Calm
Snowpack:

Avalanches: No signs of instability. No recent activity.
Weather: S-1 to S1 throughout the day. Overcast skies. Light winds with minimal transport.
Snowpack: ~2″ of new, low-density snow.
On NE and E aspects near treeline, the storm interface is smooth windboard, and the new snow was not bonding well to this surface. Lots of shallow, harmless sluffing. Dug one pit on a wind loaded NE aspect. About 120cm of 1F+ slab over 4F+ 1.5mm rounding facets. No results in ECTs or with additional loading steps on deep tap ECTs. The surface (below the new snow) was 1cm, 1F wind crust over small grained facets. The starting zones that we traveled near had variable snow depths due to previous avalanches and wind affects.

Below treeline, the storm interface is fist hard near surface facets, ~1mm, and several hand pits showed multiple facet layers in the upper 25 cm of the snowpack; not problematic until a slab arrives. Snow depth was generally about 70 to 90 cm deep, with a few shallower and faceted/unsupportive areas on steep rollovers.