Observation: Public

Observation Details

Triggered Avalanches

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Skinned up to Boy Scout Ridge, and opted and make part of our decent on a steeper section near the Tline and PCT trail junction - East/South East facing. The snow throughout our tour felt stable, and we had no significant concerns about snow stability. There was a 2-3" of new, wet snow. The conditions were overcast, mixture of rain/snow.

For good practice, we opted to dig a pit near the above noted location. We dug a pit to ground, about about 5+ feet of snow. The layers of snow were blended together and we could only find a few variances in snow quality - the group consensus was the snow pack was rather uniform. We cut three columns; The first we were not able to get any failure in compression test. We shovel sheared and were able to get a Q2 shearing at Hard at 35-45 cm down. The second column failed around the same depth as column 1, 30 strikes - from the shoulder, sheering was the same. Third column was same results as column 2, but the sheering of Q3.

We felt quite confident in skiing the steeper face. First three skiers made drops with no issue. The 4th skier opted to ski closer to a small convex on the slope, and as he neared the convex, made a slashing turn, and set loose a small, wet loose avalanche that moved about 60 feet down the slope. The skier was able to move out of way of any debris that was moving down the slope, and the slide posed no serious threat any below. The slide moved rather slow, typical of a wet loose.