March 17
Bowman-Pole Canyon-Alexander Basin-Porter Fork
Elevations, slope angles and aspects
6200-10400', angles over 35°, all aspects.
Snow conditions
1-4" new snow, light on top.
Rain-snow line was around 8k.
The rain left evidence frozen in the brush. A little digging revealed a crust of about an inch thick over damp snow.
Above the rain line, very dense snow formed a good base for the lighter(lotta small graupel) snow cap.
The new snow was, for the most part, well behaved with ski cuts initiating surface sluffs on the steepest slopes.
Cloudy skies kept heating at bay, no wet activity observed.
Weather
Cloudy skies, moderate temperatures and light wind.
Avalanche activity
One new snow slide on east facing in upper Alexander Basin
Appeared to be the result of a small cornice fall triggering the upper snowfield with an additional piece releasing below the rockband.
Of interest...
four different avalanche cycles can be seen with, the first from, clear back around February 21(actually, I think the oldest crown is from the 22nd).
In addition,
the infamous cabin in Porter Fork finally released it's load.
Since the slide probably occurred during the warming a week or so ago, I didn't check for burial.
Evaluation
Mostly stable snow.
Instability was surface sluffing and scattered shallow wind drifts.
Weather guess suggests a warmer day with increasing wind so...
would expect wet activity with warming and wind drifting as wind increases.
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