Date of Observation: 02/12/2023
Name: Eric Murrow
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Brush Creek TH to West Brush Creek via snomo. Tour around easterly terrain in the Union Chutes area.
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: none observed
Weather: Mild temperatures, light winds, with thin, high clouds limiting solar radiation during the warmest portion of the day.
Snowpack: Snow depth ranged from 140 to 160 cm (10,000 – 11,700 feet). In sheltered areas, the soft slab above the January facets faceted away for the most part. Deeper weak layers from December and November continue to present poor structure but did not produce notable test results. East facing-facing slopes near and below treeline developed a 1 cm melt/freeze crust from recent warm weather. The steepest northerly features produced minor dry sluffing in the upper snowpack while skiing.
Drifts from the northerly wind event left scattered hard slabs on the south half of the compass. The recipe for trouble appeared to be sunny slopes with a large northerly fetch to gather snow from…features without a large fetch did not look concerning.
Photos:-
- The circles highlight a few locations that appear to have formed slabs from the northerly wind event.
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- A test profile from a shaded slope. The upper snowpack has faceted enough and never developed a significant slab above the January facets to cause a significant problem in sheltered areas. Deeper weak layers remain obvious in hand hardness on left side of image, but did not produce notable test results.
