Observation Date: 02/21/2016

Route/Location:
Saturday/Sunday, we skied various northerly aspects south of Bass Lake.

Weather:
Friday night – Saturday, warm temps (near freezing) high wind, mostly cloudy, new snow.
Sunday, clear, cold and mostly calm conditions.

Wind:
Friday night – Saturday, very high and gusting winds, lots of new snow and snow being transported.
Sunday – mostly calm, some snow transport across high ridge lines.

New Snow: 3-6″

Avalanche Activity:
No current signs of instability. Old debris at base of south facing, open rock slopes east of Bass Lake. Some small point releases off of south facing rocks on Sunday due to sunny conditions.

Other Comments:
We skied very conservatively on Saturday, unsure of how well the new snow had bonded to existing snow surface (and unsure of how reactive existing layers of concern would be after new loading.) After some digging and some skiing, we determined that the new storm snow had bonded well given the warm temps. We dug several pits and performed several tests on NE and NW 25 degree slopes at around 7500′-7700′ (test scores not on-hand). No propagation on ECT tests. On these slopes, the ice layer from last week (with thin layer of graupel on top) was found 1 meter below the surface. We skied steeper, WNW facing terrain on Sunday in powder conditions with very minimal sloughing.

Observer: Joshua Phillips