Pine Pass West

Riding quality was:

Good

Snow conditions were:

• Deep powder
• Powder

We rode:

• Alpine slopes
• Dense trees
• Mellow slopes
• Open trees
• Steep slopes
• Sunny slopes

We stayed away from:

• Convex slopes

The day was:

• Cold
• Sunny
• Warm

Avalanche conditions

• Slab avalanches today or yesterday.
• Whumpfing or drum-like sounds or shooting cracks.

Out in an AST2 today we found

Several persistent weak layers (suspect all to be Surface Hoar) within the upper 1 metre of the snowpack.

Solar Aspects on the Murray Range showed pinwheeling and size 1 avalanches on cross loaded leeward terrain .

Leeward north facing slopes had multiple natural and human triggered avalanches (size 1.5-2) with a 1 metre crown.

Compression test adjacent slide captured in photos revealed Surface Hoar - however as the forecast indicates - conditions in terms of stability seem to be trending toward consolidation for this deeper instability in the pine pass.

Extended column revealed progressive compression of the upper snowpack and did not yield any results on this surface Hoar/deep persistent slab today.

There is another surface Hoar later buried about 1 foot/30cm down in leeward treeline terrain and its is easy to trigger.

There is substantial surface Hoar growth at the surface of the snowpack in leeward treeline terrain. (Size 2cm in height approx)