Observation: Public

Observation Details

Observed Avalanches

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

I saw wind drifting snow near ridgelines in the area up until about mid-day. Sunny skies in the morning gave way to high clouds by afternoon, and winds decreased.

Steep southeast aspects were beginning to warm, and small loose wet avalanches appeared possible to trigger on steep slopes.

I found 8" of new snow from the past few days, which felt more shallow on southerly aspects because it sat on a more recent sun crust. It wasn't completely bonded to old surfaces on shaded aspects, and I did note some minor cracking around skis. The sun crust from last week is about 10" thick on SE-SW aspects. The February 23 crust is down about 3ft. I found the Mid-January crust down 9ft on an ESE aspect at 5,350ft near Heather Ridge. I spent some time excavating a deep pit, and found mixed results with deep tap tests.
One test failed, sudden planer in faceted melt forms, above an ice lens (DTT26, SP).
Another test failed further below that within the melt-freeze crust complex.
Of note, I couldn't get failure on the .5mm rounding facets above the crust with these tests.