Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

I ski toured up Mt McCausland this morning on a clear, warm spring day. Conditions started out frozen, with a solid 10cm crust on all surfaces. Steep easterly aspects softened a couple inches deep by 9am, and southerly aspects by 11am. Great corn conditions. Upon return around noon, areas with a lower slope angle that hadn't fully transitioned to corn yet were slightly sticky. All areas remained supportable by my 1pm exit to Yodelin.

South aspects had a wet snowpack as far down as I dug, 130cm, with two distinct melt freeze crust layers in the top 40cm. (SE, 5400ft). On a north aspect at 5700ft the entire snowpack was dry, with the notable 2cm (dry) Easter crust 5 cm below the surface, and a very thin crust 25cm beneath that. The surface snow contained small faceted (weak) grains, and a layer of surface hoar on top.

I didn't see any new avalanches, although I wasn't present in the afternoon when the snow had softened more. There were a few week-old wet loose avalanches on Lichtenburg's east and southeast slopes (D1). I saw one glide avalanche west of McCausland on a south facing slope at about 4500ft. An east facing cornice at the summit of McCausland was dripping water from a multitude of small icicles, and very very small, slushy wet loose avalanches were running below that on the steep slope.