Observation: Public

Observation Details

Observed Avalanches

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

South side report from 4/27/23
Sparse crowds, little wind, and lot of sun made for a good summit and ski today. There's a well-worn boot back on the South Climb, with the Devils Kitchen fumarole and Coalman Bergschrund starting to open. Left gate is a snow/ice ramp, narrowed by rime encrustations with no ice step; right gate is about the same without an ice step.

West Crater Rim / Old Chute was soft today by 10am but it's very difficult to ski from the top of the Old Chute due to rime fins. We downclimbed 100 vertical feet then skied West Crater. We saw a point release avalanche that probably occurred in the last few days on Hawkins Ridge and there's a huge slide in White River that broke from the west moraine cornice.

So get off the mountain before it's too warm and with the high freezing level, avalanche risk is likely to go up. Known slide path (ones that I've seen slide): skiers right of Hogsback toward fumarole aka high traverse from Hogsback to Old Chute; White River Headwall just below Devils Kitchen; West Crater Rim; top of Old Chute; southeast facing Hawkins Ridge just above Illumination Saddle.