Observation Date: 01/08/2016

Route/Location:
North of Lost Trail Powder Mountain ski area, 8100′ elevation, Northwest, North and Northeast aspects.

Weather:
Calm winds, overcast, light snow ranging from graupel to stellar. Approx 2 cm inch fell during tour, on top of approx 10 cm soft snow from thursday. Intermittent fog and flat light. Snow decreasing during the tour.

Wind:
Winds light, 3-5 mph S-SW at ridgetop, calm elsewhere. No snow transport, but scattered wind crust from earlier events.

New Snow: 3-6″

Avalanche Activity:
No natural or skier triggered slabs seen, but steeper slopes producing cold snow loose sloughs. Depth of slough limited to new snow plus minor downcutting into older layers. Downhill travel of sloughs limited.
One windcrust on top of buried surface hoar proved sensitive during tests, but was not widespread.

Other Comments:
No reaction from compression tests except crushing of new & previous soft snow layers. No slabs, cracks or settling during tour. Right-side up snowpack, but recent surface hoar now buried by the 10 cm soft snow – could be problem with more loading or more slab character above. No notable avalanche problems other than sloughing above terrain traps.

Observer: Ed Snook