February 29

Alexander Basin

Elevations, slope angle and aspects:

6200-10000', angles approaching 40°, north, east and west facing aspects.

Avalanche activity:

Limited to views of recent wet snow point releases

se raymond

and a little surface sluffing on steep and shady.

Slopes skied:

East chute, main Alexander and the headwall.

Snow conditions:

Old settled snow was found at all elevations. West facing was crusted, but breakable in the morning. Northeast facing had soft snow with a little surface and near surface faceting. That faceting likely melted off as temperatures rose.

Some isolated surface hoar was found at low elevations,

cupped hoar frost

near the creek,

Zoomed

zoomed hoar frost

which was also a morning phenomena. Day time heating melted lower angled and sun exposed crusts, providing good fast skiing, with correct timing. Lower elevations got sticky, re-crusted, as they cooled.

Weather:

Partly cloudy skies with increasing winds (10-20mph) from the south in the afternoon.

spindrift

Mild temperatures.

Evaluation:

Stable snow. Future instabilities would be from wind drifting during the forecast strong prefrontal windy period and a lack of bond between old surface and the few inches forecast by Sunday morning.

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