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Weather Summary

Morning started overcast with flat light. Skies cleared partially into the morning, allowing for periods of bright sun and periods of occasional S-1 sputter. Snowfall intensity increased in the afternoon, with a few brief periods of S1 to S2. About 1cm of snow accumulated here during the day. On sunny slopes, it was warm enough to start softening the previous day's crust, but just barely. This area still has enough uncooked snow on solars to produce a potential loose snow problem with enough sun and warm temperatures. Winds were calm in the drainage, blowing light to moderate along exposed upper elevation ridges.

Avalanche Observations

Avalanche Observation Comments:

I observed a number of large natural avalanches that likely occurred around the same time as the large slides that blocked Warm Springs Road.

Snowpack Observations

My primary obective was to look at the slides that blocked the road and to get up higher to look for more, similar slides. It appeared that at least 2 and maybe 3 large avalanches hit the road on Wednesday morning. These failed as slabs in middle elevation terrain that had been affected by the wind. I did not visit any of the crowns, but it looked like they failed between 1 and 2 feet down from the surface, very likely on the very weak snow surface that developed during the drought in January and February. Several crowns were hundreds of feet wide, depositing debris on the road an estimated 20 feet deep in places. It was tough to gauge how much of the debris was new, as these paths produced large avalanches during the extreme danger avalanche cycle on 12/11/22. Avalanche debris contained large mature trees.

I walked past these piles and continued west past the hot springs, eventually climbing up higher to get a better view and to dig as I did. I dug several snowpits in middle elevation terrain on both shaded and solar slopes. Shaded slopes have a consistent, poor structure, with a settled 40-45cm slab overlying a thick stack of weak facets. This combination produced repeated ECTPs in the 4-6 range. On solar slopes, a mess of crusts and facets exists underneath the newest snow. I found percolation columns at several intervals here, indicating that water has begun to work its way through the snowpack a few times. I received multiple ECTNs on these upper crusts in the single digits to teens. Underneath the major set of crusts in the upper snowpack is an ugly pile of very weak, large facets. I can imagine this snow being problematic with a large load applied and if/when we see sustained warm temperatures. Its easy to forget that it is March already, we are going to have a real mess on our hands when things get warm and the sun comes out.

Once I got up high my visibility was fairly limited by low, scrappy clouds and periods of S1 snowfall. However, I was able to observe several large natural avalanches that had released around the same time as the slides that blocked the road. These all occurred in terrain where the wind had done some slab construction. I observed these towards the head of Red Warrior and Warfield Creeks, and further up the Warm Springs Creek drainage.