Date of Observation: 02/13/2016
Name: EM
Aspect: South East, South, South West
Elevation: 9300-12300
Avalanches: Two wet slides below treeline on either side of choke of spoon. Failed earlier in week. Snow in this area was wet to ground.
Weather: Warm temps with thin clouds. Consistent winds with strong gusting near and above treeline.
Snowpack: Below treeline on southerly aspects surface had crusts ranging from 5 to 12 cms. Below crusts, on most terrain over 20*, snowpack was wet to the ground.
Above treeline the snowpack had surface crust around 5 to 10 cms. Water had generally only made it 30 cms below surface. Snowpack was still mostly dry above treeline. In steep SE cross loaded start zone the HS was 180cms. Stability tests at this site produced no results, but there was clear large weak grains 30 cms thick at bottom. They were weak enough to be concerning. It would be difficult to impact this layer but would create a destructive slide. Terrain in same feature that was not loaded had HS of 100cms without concerning structure.