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Weather Summary

Skies partly cloudy in the valley, overcast to obscured in the mountains. Trace of new snow at the ranger station, 1-2cm on morraine, 5cm at middle elevations, looked like 8cm at upper elevations but hard to tell due to amount of snow being transported. Winds were erratic, swirling around, blowing in all directions. Periods of light winds and periods of moderate to strong winds. Snowfall intensity picked up in the early afternoon, it was snowing S1 to S2 for the duration of the afternoon, continuing until I left the alpine shortly before sunset. Precip was in the form of graupel and rimed stellar. [currently snowing S1-2 in Stanley at 2030]

Avalanche Observations

Avalanche Observation Comments:

I intentionally triggered a few very small slabs and sluffs that picked up speed quickly thanks to the stiff crusts underneath. These generated D1 debris piles.

Snowpack Observations

No formal obs, just moving through terrain. Not enough new snow to cause any widespread avalanche problems in the terrain I was in but I'd imagine that wind slabs and spindrift/sluff slabs below cliffs and couloirs would be more problematic with continued wind and snow. I observed some spin-drifting loose slides occurring naturally but these were quite small and not packing enough of a punch to knock you off your feet. I triggered a few very small storm slabs that failed on icy crusts. These were less than 10cm thick, but worth paying attention to in very steep terrain.

There was enough solar input this morning to begin to melt the 1-2cm of new snow that was sitting on icy surface crusts before the storm started today, at least at lower and middle elevations. This was allowing for the crusts underneath to soften a bit and making for easy travel conditions. It also introduced a small amount of warmth and liquid/interstitial water to the surface. Dry snow fell on top of this shortly after. On my exit, this moist snow (above the icy crust) had refrozen as a 1cm crust, with 5-10mm of weaker/dryer snow underneath. I didn't actually see facets here, but I also didn't look. This could make for a funky interface on solars.

The moraine trail is in rough shape after the rain and warm weather, but it is still fairly easily passable. It was very fast on the exit.

Avalanche Problems

I encountered some minor storm-related issues (dry loose, storm slabs) that had not risen to the level of a problem during my time in the field. I did not encounter the budding persistent slab problem, but I chose to avoid terrain where it lives, for simplicity. I encountered some wind drifts that were unreactive.

Terrain Use

I choose to avoid traveling on shaded middle and upper elevation slopes where the snowpack is a bit more complex than it is on solars. At least for now...