Observation Date: 11/28/2020

Route/Location:
Gash Creek area

Weather:

Wind:
Windy the last few days, west for a few days then from the east 11/27

New Snow: 6-12″

Avalanche Activity:
I’ve spent the last few days rambling around in Gash creek getting a feel for what the snow is doing. After digging several pits above 7000 feet on East-North facing slopes i’ve found a consistent pattern of ECT pit failures on a layer of near surface facets sitting on top of 20cm of refrozen rounds at the base of the snowpack. All of my propagations in pits have been in the high 20s (hits from the shoulder), so it takes a fair amount of force to get it to go, but i’ve yet to dig a pit that didn’t propagate on this layer. The slab sitting on top of this layer is 70-120cm thick in general, so pretty bullseye territory for large, scary human triggered avalanches.

I haven’t seen any other evidence of instability in the area but have stuck to moderate terrain and careful routefinding. 11/27 saw a significant nw wind event with a lot of snow transport, which left widespread midslope crossloading on e-ne facing slopes.

Other Comments:

Observer: Adam Pohl