Observation Date: 02/21/2021

Route/Location:
Skinned up east ridge to the summit of Mill Point and then skied northwest down low-angle burned tree glades to Tag Alder lake. Skinned back up to the east ridge and skied down the skin track.

Weather:
Sunny in the morning with increasing clouds. Started snowing mid-morning and continued all day.

Wind:
Calm in the morning then winds out of the SW for the remainder of the day blowing steady between 20-30mph with stronger gusts up to ~40 on the summit. We observed wind transport but did not find significant wind slabs forming. Snow surface remained powder from around 6000′ to summit, which was a bit of a surprise, especially at the top where I expected to find wind-scoured snow or stiff wind slab.

New Snow: 0-3″

Avalanche Activity:
No avalanche activity observed.

Other Comments:
We heard one wumph on the skin up around 5700′ in shallow, cold snow on a north-east facing slope in the shade that hadn’t gone through the melt-freeze cycle like the rest of the low-elevation snowpack. No other red flags observed. We dug a pit near the summit at 8408′ on a NE facing 30* slope and found a deep snowpack of HS 300cm. Our test results had fractures on several different layers:

ECTN6 12cm
ECTN13 29cm
ECTN24 41cm resulted in partial propagation (see photo)

Observer: Simon Buzzard