Public Observation

Observation Details

Observations

We toured out to TJ bowl with the plan to skin to the upper bowl. We got up into the upper lower bowl and skinning was difficult when it became steeper with 4-6 inches of new snow on top of a hard crust layer. Ski crampons would have been useful but we didn’t have any so we went down from there. I did a few hand shear test pits and while cutting the back of the test pit with the ski pole it broke on trying to isolate at the crust layer two times. On the skin up I noticed a small crown in the gully to lookers right in the upper part of lower TJ bowl in an isolated chute at its top, see photo. No instabilities were observed. The snow was slightly wind affected and it did not have a crust.

Observed Avalanches

Signs of Unstable Snow