Observation: NWAC Forecaster

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Weather Summary

Increasing cloud cover during out outing from scattered to broken. Dead calm. Stayed cold in shade.

Snowpack Observations

Consistent snow cover began around 1000ft. At 4500' I found a 3 meter snow base. Snow was well deeper than a probe at 420cm in a west-facing pit at 5400'.

About 20cm of low-density snow sits on the surface on the northern half of the compass, which slowly progressed from fist hard to pencil hard at about a meter deep. Plenty of evidence of old wind transport, especially along ridgelines, was present, but the new snow was minimally wind affected. Steep south-facing terrain has a crust from Sunday 3/5. We were never truly south, so we found a thin, breakable crust.

Pit tests and several hand shears revealed a right-side up snowpack with no instabilities in the top meter or so of snow. Small cornice cuts and steep slope testing revealed very minor sluffing.

The only evidence of avalanches we saw was small old sluffs, or dry loose avalanches, from very steep locations. They were coated with about an inch of new snow, and were likely 48+ hours old. When approaching the ridgeline at 5500 feet I was suspecting that I'd possibly find wind slab pillows that were reactive but they were old, unreactive slabs with low density snow sitting on top.

Cornices were large but there don't appear to have been any large failures on any lately. We traveled very carefully around them.