Date of Observation: 04/14/2022
Name: Eric Murrow
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Slate River corridor to Purple Ridge.
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: The light was extremely flat which made it difficult to read the terrain. I did not observe any slab avalanches but could see some dusty (brown), narrow bed surfaces on lee slopes at upper elevations. I suspect most of these were small loose avalanches from the previous day.
Weather: Overcast skies, no precip, and generally light winds with moderate gusts at ridge top. I observed some loading on to easterly aspects up high. Winds were a bit lighter than expected and fetchs on westerly slopes have become stiff and are running low on transportable snow.
Snowpack: I traveled through mostly open terrain at all elevations and found snow surfaces to be noticeably stiffer than the previous day. Numerous hasty hand pits below treeline produce not concerning behavior. The new snow is well bonded to crusts below however shovel tilt tests continue to produce a planar result near the bottom of the storm snow. It took more force today to get a result in shovel tilt tests. Digging in well drifted leeward feature I was not able to get any notable test results even though there is a clear strong over weak structure present (see image). The most drifted terrain had a stiff surface that was supportive to skis. I was not able to produce any shooting cracks or find signs of instability yet chose to avoid the skiing drifted slopes.
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- Shovel Tilt Tests continue to show a weakness near the bottom of the recent snow, but it required more force than yesterday to get it to ‘pop’. Storm snow has settled to about 10 inches in sheltered terrain.
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- A test profile on a well-drifted easterly slope at 11,500 feet. There is clear strong over weak in the slab, but no concerning test results. The ECT N looks to be at similar spot to storm weakness in sheltered areas.
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- This image shows my test profile in relation to heavily drifted terrain in the background. I traveled part way up this ridge in the background and was able to probe into the top of the start zone in two places; the structure in the drifted slab felt similar to my profile site.
