Observation: Public

Observation Details

Triggered Avalanches

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Great day out in the newly accessible Rainy Pass area. There was a nice refreeze the night before with firm snow conditions in the early morning, just soft enough that we opted not to use ski crampons.

Travel conditions throughout the day were generally easy, with the snow softening quickly thanks to the powerful sun and warm air temps. We skied the South Face of Black Peak ~11:30 AM and enjoyed great skiing up high becoming a bit gloppier below 6500 feet - all in all, I was happy with our timing.

Throughout the day we did not see any natural avalanche activity or signs of instability such as pinwheels, although there are many older slab avalanches still visible that are evidence of the warming event ~2 weeks ago, including a very large avalanche off the north facing slopes south of Lake Ann which deposited a large debris pile into the lake.

As the day warmed up and the snow became softer, skiing conditions deteriorated. On our final descent towards Rainy Lake we triggered a D1.5 loose wet slide on a steep roll - not an issue for us, but obviously such slides can be very dangerous especially in higher consequence terrain.

Rainy Lake is well into the melt-out process, and we opted not to ski across it, instead taking a mildly tedious traverse around the shore. The slopes on the north side of the lake are quite melted out as well as the standard climbing routes towards the Lyall Glacier basin, especially with even warmer weather forecasted for this weekend, I would probably recommend parties consider other routes into the alpine than Rainy Lake.