24-25

Snowpack on Henderson Bench on NE facing slope

Wet Loose avalanche at Lulu on South facing slope

Old wind slab avalanche on Henderson that likely failed on old facets near the ground after heavy wind loading. NE facing at about 10,100 ft.

1cm surf hoar at Lulu

Henderson bench NE facing profile

Lulu pass South facing profile

Lots of surface hoar. Those crystals are often destroyed before being buried, but surface hoar is a good sign of weather conditions that are good for near surface faceting.

The upper few inches of snow is a mix of broken snowflakes that are starting to facet a little bit. Not too terrible yet.

Deeper layers of old November snow closer to the ground are faceted and breaking in stability tests. To get an avalanche breaking on those facets, I think you need an old wind slab on top. Even then, I think the sensitivity has dropped a lot. 

We did see one recent wet loose avalanche that started near some exposed rocks in a place that typically gets wet. I did NOT see any wet loose slides in East and Southeast-facing gullies on Barronette peak. However, I'd be nervous ice climbing in these gullies when the sun is hitting them.

My partner and I dug a pit on the SW side of Divide Peak at 9200' and conducted an ECT test with a score of ETCN. Our snow pit was about 120cm deep, and the identifiable weak layer in the shovel shear test was an ice crust layer at about 30cm from the base. We did not find any of the faceting issues that have been reported across the advisory range.

Thanks for all that you do!