Mostly obscured skies and low visibility with low clouds filter in and out
Light snow fall adding a trace above 1,000' and light rain below 1,000'
Winds were light with a few gusts from the East at Treeline
Temperatures were warm.... mid 30's at 1,000' and upper 20's at 2,300' (high point)
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Tincan
Toured up the common Tincan route to see how much snow has fallen over the weekend. We also dug in as near the snowboarder triggered avalanche from Friday, April 17th as we could. This was to look at layering and help determine the culprit weak layer. Last, we scoped out a spot for a future semi-permanent snow temperatures monitoring site.
Additionally, below are some photos of the weekend’s avalanche cycle – D2’s, D3’s and what looks like some D4’s. Impressive. Many many paths ran with very wide propagation. Crowns were estimated at anywhere from 2-10′ thick…. A “crush-and-flush” of sorts, yet many slopes, like Sunburst’s Southwest face, remain intact.
Notable slides: The Southwest facing aspects of Pete’s South, Pete’s North, Lipps and Cornbiscuit all ran almost wall to wall! Also, Elevator shaft on North facing Sunburst and all of Magnum’s West face. Elevation of most the activity was between 2,500′ and 3,500′ and on all aspects, N,S,E and W.
Weather
Snow surface
There has been roughly 3 feet of settled snow from over the weekend (since the avalanches triggered on the 17th)
WET and saturated snow below 2,000', not fun skiing, mash potatoes, grabby and punchy
Damp and dense snow above 2,000', fun skiing, where the snow is more cream cheese-like
Snowpack
We dug one pit: North aspect, 2,200' with a total depth of 340 (ish)cm.
We were looking for the old melt freeze crust that is believed to be the bed surface for the avalanches on April 17th. We found what we believe to be this layer 2 meters down. The top 1m (3') of the pack is new from over the weekend. No facets were found above the old melt-freeze crust. The crust was ~20cm thick and the slab on top would have been 1m (3') at the time of the avalanche (prior to the 3' over the weekend).
No other noteworthy notes other than the top 2m of the pack is dense, strong and moist (warm).
Elevator shaft avalanche, Noth facing Sunburst Ridge, from likely yesterday, April 19th
Wind loaded crowns from adjacent slides near the Elevator shaft from April 19th
Pete's South Ridgeline, Much of this South face ran yesterday, April 19th
Upper Center Creek Drainage avalanches, April 19th
Looking for layers to help explain the April 17th avalanches on Tincan
Very soft wet snow below 2,000'
Hiking up with a bamboo pole to mark a potential BeadedStream temperature array that will hopefully be installed this fall for next season!!