Spring at Thunder

The day was:

• Warm

Avalanche conditions

• Rapid temperature rise to near or above 0°C or wet surface snow.

Spent the weekend out at Thunder Meadows hut, access and egress was good. Used the xc trails from Island lake and was able to ski the majority of the way in and out. The creek crossing into cabin bowl is swollen, will require a boots off maneuver.

Friday and Saturday held good skiing, cold snow on polars and warming on solars. No signs of instability were observed on friday and saturday. Sunday and Monday had increasingly weak refreeze overnight and hot wet skiing everywhere. We were able to ski steep alpine terrain on Saturday, and then stepped back from terrain as the warming increased. We witnessed a widespread natural cycle of wet loose and some cornice fall to size 1.5. By Sunday many glide cracks were growing in the area, we witnesses no glide releases. Monday afternoon while exiting we began to make wet slab avalanches while navigating thru steep terrain at the bottom of orca bowl and had one wet slab Sa at size 2. The rider was able to ski out of the avalanche.

Below 1500m the Lizard range is below threshold. Above 1500m coverage increases fast and is over 3 m of snow at the cabin. The snowpack continues to be isothermal up to ridgetop and will need a good refreeze before the corn harvest begins!

The cabin is in good shape, well buried and the pressure of the snow has moved the door slightly out of alignment. Bring mouse traps if you are heading up! The bathroom has snow/ice plugged into the puck board poop slider but hopefully that clears up with warming temps!