Observation Date: 02/17/2019

Route/Location:
Started on a southeastern sloped meadow following next to Pistol Creek Road. Fairly protected slope, areas that dipped more in northwest had some wind loading. Overall stayed in protected areas due to some scary layers and low elevation under 6,000ft.

Weather:
Almost no wind, overcast with some light snowing on and off throughout the day. around 17-20 degree temp.

Wind:
Minimal snow loading in the trees. Some signs of drifting on more open slopes. Did not test on fully open slopes and ridges due to snow signs in the layers In meadow areas.

New Snow: 6-12″

Avalanche Activity:
Leeward slopes where southwest facing, Windward northeast facing. Around 40cm of snow in non-wind affected areas, 20cm being an overnights dump. Windward slopes had about 20cm and Leeward slopes having up to 70cm. At 4,000 feet on a non-wind affected slope, we did compression column test of 11 taps and found an ice crust at 4cm with facets growing on top making it a Q1. No-other problem layers where detected. With an ECT we got and ECTX with all layers. We did NOT do column tests on leeward slopes. Wind-loaded slopes even at 4,000 should be avoided due to heavy wind loading and a crust layer not too deep from the surface.

Other Comments:
Good fresh powder in the mission area. Stay in the trees and away from all leeward slopes

Observer: Eric Hardwick