Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Due to the high forecasted avalanche hazard, we played it safe and chose low angle terrain below tree line.

It was warm and raining at the pass. By 3,500 ft it switched to snow, but remained very heavy and wet until we reached 4,500 ft. We found ample evidence of wet loose avalanche conditions - there were many natural rollerballs and wet loose avalanches in steep terrain, and we could easily trigger wet loose avalanches on steep terrain below tree line.

We did not see any natural slab avalanches, likely because we stayed far away from exposed alpine terrain. Digging in to the snow at 5,000 ft we found moist, upside down storm snow over a thin layer of weak, sugary facets on the 2/1 rain crust. Below the 2/1 crust there were a series of other crusts above the major 1/13 AR layer. The 2/1 layer generated mixed results in tests, and may show signs of rounding. In any case, the layer was present, and rather than hang our hats on one single data point we chose to stick to treed, lower angle terrain.