Observation Date: 02/28/2016

Route/Location:
Up Mill point, down north face, up Mill 2 via N ridge, down W. gully. Back to Mill point over the W. ridges, climbing west faces and skiing east faces, Tag Alder lake lap. Skied or climbed all aspects except south.

Weather:

Wind:

New Snow: 3-6″

Avalanche Activity:
During a long tour on the Mill points, we did not see any recent sign of avalanche activity aside from isolated roller ball activity and 1-day old point release slides on the steep east face of Mill 2.

Rain line from Saturday the 27th was up to about 6,500′, and above there, snow depths increased from a trace to about 6″. All of the new snow had been wind affected by strong W. winds during the storm, and hard new slabs up to 16″ were present on wind loaded aspects below ridgelines. We were getting some isolated shooting cracks in the top 3″ on hollow wind slabs. Aside from that, every sign was that the new snow was bonding well to the old snow surface.

We dug a quick pit in the W. gully of Mill 2 at 8,200′ to check stability on that aspect. Only dug to 24″ Pit results were CTEasy, Q1 in the top 3″, CT15Q3 at 16″ and 20″. These results were fairly specific to the wind scoured W. aspect, and I would not expect them to translate well to wind loaded aspects where the new slab was much deeper.

We felt OK skiing steep terrain on all non-wind loaded aspects. Ski quality was poor. It was storming on our evening exit, and rain line was once again in the 6,000-6,500′ range.

Other Comments:

Observer: Brian Story