Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Weather: Scattered snow showers, light wind with very minimal to no snow transport observed. Broken skies and cool temps.

Terrain: Traveled in challenging and complex terrain the north side of Silverstar in Varden Creek up to 7500ft.

Avalanche: No new avalanches from today. Observed some wet loose activity on the south side of Delaney Ridge and other steep south/southeast facing slopes below 6,000ft. The Varden Creek basin all avalanched around 2/22, running to mid/lower runout zone at around 5100ft. We could still make out some crowns along the base of the cliffs from this event, they looked around 1.5-3ft deep.

Snowpack: We found 2” of new snow from yesterday. Another inch or two fell during the day. The snowpack is generally well bonded, uniform, and progressively harder towards the ground. The newly buried interface from 3/5 could harbor small near surface faceted grains here or there, and is worth watching if new snow and wind begin to add up. Ski conditions were variable with everything from old, firm wind board under the new snow to breakable crust, to settled powder underneath.

Snow Profile: 1000hrs, 6600ft, NNE aspect, HS 304cm. We found the mid January crust down 130cm as a .5cm thick melt freeze crust (k-). A thin layer of small (1mm) rounded facets was just above this at 1F hardness. We didn’t get any results with compression tests or deep tap tests here. We could get the layer the split with manipulation, but it ok some force and seemed very well bonded.

Another profile at 7,000ft on N aspect we couldn’t find the mid January crust. We did get Resistant Planer shears down 40cm on a thin layer of rounded grains and rounded facets (.5-1mm) down 40cm. CTH (22/24) here.