Observation: NWAC Forecaster

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Weather Summary

Mostly cloudy in the morning with increasing clouds throughout the day. Light snow showers began just after 12:00. The wind was cold and gusting to moderate in the morning hours on the ridge. Lower elevations were much warmer.

Avalanche Observation Comments:

I triggered a few very small pockets in wind-drifted terrain near ridgelines. They failed easily and skittered down on the underlying melt-freeze crust. Other than that, signs of recent warm and wet weather were obvious with some fallen cornice chunks, rollerballs, and small wet loose avalanches - albeit less widespread than I had anticipated.

Snowpack Observations

The upper snowpack contained a few cms of new snow overlaying a melt-freeze crust. This crust was mostly ski-supportable up high, degrading into breakable crust at lower elevations. In no locations did I find it to be boot supportable.

Below the crust was some moist snow followed by a transition to cold dry snow. The depth of the wetting front varied by elevation. Small column tests continued to highlight some failure points in the upper snowpack and deep tap tests on the 3/31 did the same, but overall the snowpack is right-side up.

It was pretty winter-like up high, which was not what I expected based on recent observations from other locations in the zone. Actively blowing snow and wind-loading were observed with specific pockets of Wind Slab. Cornices aren't huge, but were actively building and some are overhung. No signs of sagging or cracking, yet.