Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

We travelled to Lake Valhalla via Nason Creek Drainage/ Valhalla uptrack. Skinning depth has shrunk dramatically, at a manageable 30cm. Boot pen is about 70cm. Sun occasionally showed through despite broken ominous clouds and variable very light snowfall through the morning. No wind transport was present where we were.

On south facing slopes a 2cm MFcr was present from 2/18 with 20cm F snow from last night on top. We travelled on low angle, non-wind loaded terrain and constantly did hand pits finding that the new snow was bonded well to the crust. In areas without that crust there was a rough failure at the interface. Aside from locations with the crust, snowpack was right-side up (F to P) above the 1/24 layer and interfaces of concern in last few days had stabilized where we dug.

We could still see the crown on Mt McCausland (2/16?) but were unable to reach it (I'd still like to know what it failed on!) and a few small wet loose avalanches from 2/18 were visible beneath the new snow in steep, rocky areas. Otherwise, there were no new avalanches.