Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

We started at the Big Creek Campground and hiked up to the base of the Winter chute of Mt Ellinor at 4600' elevation. The snow on the trail was crusty and at times we were punching through in snowshoes. When we reached the base of the Winter chute we could see collapsing snow bridges, open boulder wells and water flowing heavily under the snow and ice all the way up the chute. Definitely not safe summit conditions. The snow was not consolidated and we were very cautious on where we stepped in our snowshoes as the snow easily punched through. We turned around at the base of the chute.