Observation Date: 04/16/2016

Route/Location:
Anaconda-Pintlers-Mount Tiny-Not in advisory, but something to look out for

Weather:
Cold cloudy in the morning breaking to sunshine and strong solar in the afternoon

Wind:
No wind this day, but evidence of high winds during the storm Thursday-Friday

New Snow: 6-12″

Avalanche Activity:
Toured up Storm Lake drainage on Saturday morning, As we turned the corner to the basin below Mount Tiny (east facing) we noticed a large slide which had ripped to the ground. Crown line was sizeable 200 to 300 feet across. Crown indicated a storm/wind slab avalanche occurred when the storm from Thursday/Friday pushed the pack to its breaking point. We figure it pushed the underlying wet snow to failure and wet slid to the ground. This was enough bulls eye data for us retreat from riding avalanche terrain this day, however with time on our hands we dug a pit on a north facing slope at 8600 feet all the way to the ground (5 ft). Approximately 8″ fresh powder storm snow on top of a 1-2″ supportable crust, on top of 2 feet of somewhat consolidated warm wet snow, all sitting on top of 2 feet of wet, saturated, completely unconsolidated isothermic snow. The pit explained the slide, but was surprising and scary because while booting and skinning the pack would support your weight and felt frozen, but if you jumped hard and broke through the crust you would sink to your knees or even crotch. Even with a decent refreeze overnight the pack appeared to still be completely unfrozen from the ground up.

Other Comments:

Observer: Dave G