| Recent Avalanches? | No |
| Collapsing (Whumphing)? | No |
| Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | Yes |
Observation: Hatcher Pass
Location: Independence Mine Area (Lost Couloir)
Normal uptrack to upper Indepence Mine area then up Lost Couloir. Good vis until 2 pm when the storm rolled in. Dug pit on the apron of couloir. E Aspect at 3900′ ECTX. 30cm of settled storm snow sheared off easily with shovel shear. Small windslabs in the couloir.
Obvious signs of instability
Observer Comments
In the couloir we found isolated windskins and windslabs that ranged from 1" to 6" that were moderately bonded to loose dry snow. They would crack in 10' sections between switchbacks. We triggered tiny windslabs (6" deep by 10' that slide 50' vertical) while riding the couloir.
Weather
High single digits at parking lot with light winds until 4000' then 10 mph southerly winds. As per usual we skinned up in excellent visibility only for it to go full whiteout immediately before dropping.
Snow surface
Excellent soft snow on the skin up until 4000' when we found wind affected snow but still very skinnable/edgeable. Boot packing up Lost Couloir ranged from boot deep to waist deep wallowing. Small soft windskins and windslabs in the couloir.
Snowpack
Dug pit on the apron of couloir. E Aspect at 3900' ECTX. Overdrive taps produced no results. Total snow depth 220 cm, unsure if some of this attributed to sluff debris. 30cm of soft settled storm snow sheared off easily with shovel shear. An obvious layer existed about 50 cm down that pried off easily with shovel behind column, but this was my first day at Hatcher all season and I'm unsure what the layer was. Overall snowpack was right side up with the base feeling pretty solid.
Small soft isolated pockets of windslabs in the couloir. The old storm sluff debris in couloir and apron had been faceted by the cold temps and rode well.
Small windslabs in the couloir
A section of easier booting. You can see a 4" soft windslab here. We triggered a few small inconsequential pockets of these while riding down