Observation Date: 01/13/2018

Route/Location:
Up Mill point via the normal route from Mill creek trailhead. Tag alder lake runs.

Weather:

Wind:

New Snow:

Avalanche Activity:
From 6,500 feet to 7,500 feet, snow from the past storm was sitting on the January 5 rain crust, and hand pits revealed good bond with no buried surface hoar layer. We dug a pit at 8,000 feet on a 20 deg. NE facing slope. We got failures mid-storm at 20 cm (ECT16N; CT14Q2) and at the base of last week storm 50 cm (ECT22N, CT20Q2 NO BURIED SURFACE HOAR). The Thanksgiving crust was at 150 cm. There were facets on the crust, but they did not fail in compression, and did not shear cleanly with shovel shear. Based on our assessment, the snow was stable, but we still stuck to moderate terrain out of general principle given the heavy new snow load. We did not see sign of avalanche activity. We did not have any cracking or collapsing all day.

Other Comments:

Observer: Brian Story