Observation Date: 04/12/2015

Route/Location:
Parked at ~6500′ on the Baker Lakes road, two switchbacks short of the trailhead. Skinned to Baker Lake and ascended to the Trapper Peak ridge via east facing shoulder just south of the Gem Lake Couloir.

Above 8000′ the new snow accumulation increased quickly from 6″ to between 12″-18″+ in wind deposition zones. One member of our party dug a pit on a northeast facing slope underneath some cliffs at ~8200′. He reported his results as: CT11 q2 at 14″ and CT25 q3 at 28″. Below this was completely firm snow.

Just below the main ridge to Trapper we stopped and dug another pit on an east aspect at ~9200′. We found very similar results, though this pit was on a 25 degree slope. We did not get the layer at 14″ to propagate across an extended column.

Traveling to the summit confirmed the extremely windy conditions we expected. The wind was probably gusting to 50mph and there was a lot of snow moving. Though our pits did not reveal a hard wind slab, the wind and available snow for transport were enough to make us quickly forget about possibly skiing north off of the summit. It just didn’t feel right with all the wind.

We had great powder skiing back down to Baker Lake. I wanted to post this so folks know there is a lot of new snow up high and that leeward aspects are particularly loaded after this recent front.

Weather:

Wind:
Gusting to ~50mph

New Snow: 12+”

Avalanche Activity:
No natural avalanches visible, stuffing and small point releases off of cliffs.

Other Comments:

Observer: Steve Hodgdon