Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Terrain: Parked at 1600ft on FSR 12 approx. 6 miles from Schriebers Meadow/Park Butte summer trailhead or 1 mile from the FSR 12 and FSR 13 intersection. Patchy snow coverage until 2200ft. Traveled to Park Butte, Pocket Lake, Easton/Squak Glaciers, and Crag View.

Avalanche: Widespread wet loose activity to size D2 on all aspects up to 7500ft from past several days of warm sunny weather. Wet loose avalanches became easy to trigger on all aspects by late morning. Numerous glide cracks on all aspects with several recent glide avalanches including one that ran today sometime between 10am-2pm on the NE aspect of Loomis Mountain near 5200ft.

Snowpack: Snow surfaces experienced a superficial overnight freeze below 7000ft and began to soften significantly by 9 am. Boot penetration increased to 30cm by 11 am. Wet surface snow was found up to 7000ft on E-S-W aspects and up to at least 5500ft on N aspects. On E-S-W aspects between 4000-7000ft the top 15-30cm of the snowpack was wet. Below 3000ft the snowpack is isothermal. Above 7000ft only the top 5cm was moist with dry snow below.

Weather: Sunny skies with high temperatures in the alpine near 60F. Calm winds in the morning becoming light and variable in the PM.