March 10
A friend came into town from Montana.
I needed an attitude adjustment from too much school so we did a tri canyon tour.
Alta guard station, Flagstaff, upper Days,
main Days,
Spruces, Reynolds,
Butler Basin, Wilson chutes, Millcreek
Elevations, slope angles and aspects
6200-10k, angles over 35°, all aspects
Snow conditions
2-6" recent snow over a crusted base.
The old snow crust was variable and in many areas, actually, consisted of a crust, snow, crust sandwich.
It was quite hard and slick where scoured by the wind, otherwise spongy.
The new snow wasn't quite enough to eliminate feeling the old surface, except on lower angles.
Bonding was good other than the most drifted locations
South and east facing crusted after going into shade, the result of day time heating.
Weather
Clear skies, temperatures cool in the morning and on the shady side. Warm and spring like in the sun.
Wind from the north along the ridges, gusting to around 15 mph at 10k.
Avalanche activity
Limited to shallow wind drifts
and sluffing on the steepest slopes
Probably some point release sluffs on the sunny side.
Evaluation
As has been the case with recent storms
snow is stable and well behaved, with a few wind drifts on lee aspects, sluffing on steeper slopes and wet slides from day time heating.
That was good fun!
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