Observation: NWAC Forecaster

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Weather Summary

It was a sunny and beautiful day. In exposed areas near ridgelines, cool east winds were gusting approaching moderate at times.

Avalanche Observation Comments:

A handful of small D1-D1.5 Wet Loose avalanches were observed. Some older slabs were spotted throughout my travels. Cornices are large and some have shed chunks in recent days.

Snowpack Observations

Made a nice loop up Mt. Snoqualmie, over to the Friendlies, dropping Thunder Creek, heading over to Avalanche Basin, and finishing up by ascending over the Divide back to the car.

I took my binoculars looking for evidence of very large avalanches on the surrounding peaks. I didn't find any, which is a good thing.

What I did find was a variety of surfaces. On slopes that saw the sun on Thursday, a sun crust existed in the morning. It varied in thickness but was generally ski supportable with only a bit of cracking. Soft snow existed underneath in most locations. The skin track was firm and icy in spots, making for some tricky travel through the crux of the ascent up Mt. Snoqualmie. Sun crusts were soon mixed with wind press and sastrugi at upper elevations. On my exit via Avalanche Basin and the apron, the crust was broken down and the snow was wet and sticky.

On shaded slopes, well-settled powder existed with wind-effect in exposed areas, particularly near ridgeline and on convexities. Digging in Thunder Creek Basin, I found that our 2 most recent layers failed (hard) in small column tests. Both had some sort of weak grain at the interface, but the distribution appears to be spotty. Otherwise, the snowpack is well-settled and generally right-side up.