April 14
Area:
White Pine
Elevations, slope angles and aspects:
7500’-11000’, angles to 40°, north, northeast and northwest.
Avalanches observed:
A few dry sluffs, largest on Long John Silver, several days old and some wet activity, limited to rollers and shallow point releases. The largest was a ski cut wet point release, which spread to 10’ or so on a break over, northeast facing below Lake peak around noon. The lower elevation north facing also produced some pin wheeeling and rollers on the exit around 2 pm.
Slopes skied:
Lake Peak, north facing and Red Baldy northwest facing.
Snow surface and conditions:
A well frozen snow surface was found in the morning extending from the trailhead to around 9500’. Above that there was some dry settled powder, several inches deep, on north facing, mixed with a variety of crusts and shallow drifts from the north winds, yesterday. Repeated ski cutting of the drifts produced only isolated cracking, no movement. Snow was slow to soften, eventually doing so around noon on the sun exposed at upper elevations. A return to lower elevations in the afternoon, indicated it had softened earlier, but was still supportable, softening only the surface and near surface.
Storm snow had settled to around a 2” total.
Weather:
Sunny skies and cool temperatures. Occasional breezes from a southerly direction.
Evaluation:
Day time heating was the primary factor increasing the hazard somewhat. I’d imagine that was more pronounced on the sunny aspects, although no natural activity was observed. There are some random shallow drifts scattered around, which may still have an isolated potential, with tickling on a variety of aspects, mostly upper elevations. Shallow wet activity is also possible, with enough heating and sun exposure.
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