Observed a cornice failure that resulted in a step down slide on a NE aspect at approximately 5500’.  Temp was 28 degrees but full sunlight.  Overall snow conditions were stable with 3-4” of powder.

Mumford’s – NW Aspect.  50+ degree temperature at 2,500’.  Soft corn conditions on surface.  60cm of snow to melt/freeze layer.  230cm of total snow depth.  Observed a large brown bear exiting den just SE of Mumford’s proper top.  

toured and skied the McCallum basin over the weekend and noticed wet slides, cornice falls, and a couple of wind slabs that had let loose. the skiing was good for the most part but there were definitely some areas that were heavily wind affected. there were no shooting cracks, whumping, or any other instabilities that […]

Went up Piedad trail this afternoon. Snow started at ~1000ft, started skinning ~1200ft, and started boot packing on decent ~1500ft. Variable icy to corn conditions in the trees. Above tree line was variable corn conditions (primarily feed-quality corn with sections of cream corn.) Our objective of the day was to go to the weather station […]

Lutak Zone – SE Aspect @ approximately 3,700′.  Broken clouds to mainly overcast.  Soft ice crust conditions on surface.  Dug a hand pit.  Encountered a reactive layer 10 cm down on buried surface hoar.  Also, a well bonded melt/freeze crust or rime layer 28 cm down.  From 3,000′ down to treeline, generally soft corn conditions […]

Lutak Zone: Above freezing temperatures and strong solar radiation helped jump start the spring shed. Below 2500′ on a north aspect corn snow appeared mid-day, while elevations higher up held on to colder drier snow. Any aspect with sun exposure began to produce point releases around rocks and cliffs, along with snow falling off of […]

Haines Pass Zone: Spent a few day out touring a variety of aspects and elevations. Highly variable conditions from the strong north winds. Snow changed every 100ft from sastrugi, to hollow wind slab, to recycled powder, to lightly roasted corn, to supportable and breakable crust. The sun warmed up solar aspects which softened the snow, […]

Haines Pass: NW shoulder of Three-Guardsmen. Found 5cm of very reactive wind slab at the top of the snowpack, and another reactive wind slab from 5-30cm deep, but neither slabs showed propagation in this particular spot. It’s a good reminder to be vigilant of these wind slabs anywhere they could be stiffer, thicker, or on […]

Stairway Area – 4100′ – NE  ECT P 18 – down 50cm on 1-2mm facets – Sudden planar ECT P 19 – down 50cm on 1-2mm facets  – Sudden planar

Area 51: The 2-3 feet of wet snow that fell last week has dried out considerably and formed a several centimeter granular/breakable Crust on all aspects up to at least 2300ft. Soft snow with no crust was found on an Eastern aspect at 2300ft.  Minimal slabs observed at lower elevation with the exception of the […]

Left road at 11 AM with intent to hike up 40.5 mile wall.  Wind increasing by 12 with active pluming and snow transport in the mids.  Turned around at 3200 feet on west facing aspect due to concern about reactive windslab, and on way down first rider ski cut produced D2 slab between 1′-3′ thick. […]

skied the ridge between Trims and Micheal creek and noticed a little bit of wind slabs that were not reactive at all. no pits were dug but there were no signs of instability and no cracking or whumfing of any kind. also no recent slides were noticed once on the ridge above trims creek.