Mostly sunny with 26F degrees at 4000 feet. Calm winds and no blowing snow.
Observation: Hatcher Pass
Location: Peak 4068' Wimp Bowl
From Fishhook Lot toured up 4068. We invited two Argentinians from the avalanche center in Bariloche who recently took their Professional Level 1 Avalanche Course with Alaska Avalanche School to join for the day. The four of us took a lap on the southern face (Sunnyside) towards Frostbite and second down Wimp Bowl. We wanted to look for poor snowpack structure, lingering wind slabs, and persistent weak layers/grains that could contribute to instability. We found nothing alarming and great conditions on our descent.
Weather
Snow surface
Soft snow conditions in wind protected locations with a thin 2cm wind skin near ridgeline. We could get minor cracking on isolated wind affected features but slabs were stubborn and small. 4-6 inches of soft snow on leeward slopes but thin and firm surfaces on southeast aspects with persistent weak grains near the surface and ground. Although, we didn't see alarming red flags, dry loose and small wind slab avalanches could be triggered in steep isolated terrain.
Snowpack
The snowpack in our northeast aspect pit location on Wimp Bowl was unimpressive. There were faceted grains below the recent snow, but the hardness did not change too abruptly. A pencil hard layer was evident 100cm below the surface but contained rounding facets. Our Compression Test yielded CT13 RP @25cm down while our ECTN 15@25cm.
Side wall pit photo from separate tour up Eldorado 2.26.24
2/27/24 Snowpit 4068. No propogation in test pit. We did get ECTN15 and CT13RP 25cm down on the new snow/rounding facet crust interface
In areas with shallower snowpack (think SE windward slopes), snowpack is shallow with larger, chained and intact depth hoar.
Smooth snow surfaces, even on solar aspects. While we could feel lingering crusts, they were intermittent. Plenty of soft, unskied snow.
Soft powder with a consistent foot of ski penetration for a thousand feet. Yes please.
We had to go hunting for lingering slabs. These were isolated and stubborn and only below cornices or steep rockbands.
Cornice on north side of 4068 is beginning to sag and crack. This will likely fail with additional load in coming weeks.
Small D1 natural dry loose sluffs in gullies near Stairstep from the last 48 hours.
Calm to light Southeast winds the last 24 hours means our 2/22 snow is staying soft and dry.