Observation Date: 11/28/2014

Route/Location:
Spent the day on the currently closed resort at Lost Trail Pass. Skinned up mostly cat tracks and tried to stay as high as possible to avoid the rain crust.

Weather:
It was raining at the bottom (~7,000ft) when we showed up but quickly turned to snow as we gained elevation. It snowed on and off all day. Wind was gusty but not especially strong.

Wind:
There were very obvious wind crusts and wind pillows, but they seem to have formed with the previous storm. Wind was not very strong, but gusty at times.

New Snow: 0-3″

Avalanche Activity:
Snow that was being rained on sluffed frequently on all aspects. No slab avalanches witnessed but past avalanche activity was seen. Very small slides were seen on rollovers at around 7,500ft on a mostly east aspect. These slides did not appear to propagate long distances but failed very close to the ground. Trigger may well have been rain.

Other Comments:
I also skinned around Lost Trail on 11/26/14, and the largest observation was increased stability in the snowpack. On Wednesday, whoomphing was heard every hundred feet or so, if not more frequently. The snow sounded very hollow, and a CT failed about 35″ down after 3 taps, Q2. The slab appeared to fail on facets about 2″ above the ground.

Today, whoomphing was only heard twice (as apposed to 20 times on Wednesday), and we covered about 10 times as much ground as on Wednesday. Our CT failed on the same layer (about 35″ down), Q2, after 11 taps. The snow could still produce serious avalanches, but it certainly appears to be gaining some stability.

Observer: Ben Uhlenbruck