Public Observation

Observation Details

Observations

Travel off the back side of June Mtn today, down to Yost Meadow and started up the trees below the Negatives. Partly sunny with wind gusts increasing from 30 to 50mph around 9500ft with lots of active snow transport and loading. Probing between 9600ft and 10000ft on a NNE aspect revealed no buried persistent layers or identifiable crusts within the top 270cm of the snowpack, but instead showed 2-5cm of wind slab, 80cm new snow, then 4F and 1F layers 80-270cm deep. The top thin wind slab was very touchy, however, during my descent, producing shooting cracks and large but thin blocks of snow below my skis during my first two turns. I descended to the top of a convexity with the intention of ski cutting the small slope to test for reactivity in this top layer, but before I had the opportunity to proceed, I immediately remotely triggered a small wind slab 4cm deep that released 15 feet from my position, which was quite far back on the flat part of the feature. I'd say the continuous wind loading is keeping the wind slab problem touchy today. On my second lap I could barely see my skin or ski tracks because they were completely filled in, which was the same for the wind slab that had released, and I descent through the trees which produced no instability in the snow.
Quite a few crowns could be seen at the top of the Negatives, as well as below cliff bands in the lower bowl below. Buried avalanche debris was apparent almost all the way down to the meadow. At around 1pm, a wet loose released below Solar Bowl starting from a rock feature and ran about 300 vertical feet. On my return to the resort, the top 3 cm of snow were quite moist from above freezing temps and sunny skies.

Triggered Avalanches

Observed Avalanches

Signs of Unstable Snow