Observation Date: 02/25/2018

Route/Location:
Up west aspect from Swamp creek, several runs on West, East, South and North aspects from the middle and North summits.

Weather:
Only 6″ or so of storm snow, but wind and additional precip were coming in late in the day.

Wind:

New Snow: 3-6″

Avalanche Activity:
I made a few observations during a long tour on Morrell in the South Swans. During the approach, I was surprised to hear a lot of collapsing and was getting shooting cracks, so I dug a hasty low elevation pit (5,500 feet, E facing in the trees). The problematic layer was a thin layer of facets 20 cm down, about 5 cm above the early February rain crust. I did a few CT tests, and was getting CT5 Q1 results on the layer. I think this problematic layer was confined to the rain crust elevation (below 6,500 feet), because I did not hear any collapsing up higher. I also dug a pit at 7,300 feet to assess the new snow in the starting zone of the Southwest facing avalanche path I had hoped to ski. I only dug down 80 cm. There was a thin ice crust at 60 cm, which was failing cleanly in compression (CT 15 Q1), but was not propogating across an extended column (ECT 25N). I felt OK skiing the slope. The other obvious hazard today was the new snow, which was predictably forming sensitive slabs. I felt comfortable skiing everything except steep East facing windloaded terrain.

Other Comments:

Observer: Brian Story