A short trip to look at snowpack characteristics at site of remotely-triggered avalanche. The snowpack here is very similar to that observed in other places in our forecast area that have a similar snow depth.
Cloud cover increasing in late morning hours and precipitation starting around noon.
Avalanche failed on small facets on top of melt-freeze crust that caps the December facets. The combination of warm ambient air temperatures and solar radiation immediately prior to the burial of this layer produced this crust. This crust+facet combo was very similar to the bed surface I observed on the Gladiator Creek natural avalanche I visited on 1/10.
Avalanche was 50' wide, ran about 100' along slope, and broke up to 2' deep. Bed surface angle ranged between 36-40*, primarily 37-38*. It failed just below the old toll road, where the slope was steepened by the building of the road.