Mount Ellinor

Quick report

I dug two handpits while climbing the SE Chute on Mt Ellinor. Both pits had similar results: a 4-6" slab failed on a weak layer of wet snow. The slab appeared wind affected. However, I did not observe any cracking or collapsing while traveling. I also observed along the route one natural wet loose avalanche (perhaps D1) that released from a large rock outcropping, though I'm not sure how recently it slid. I did not observe any active wet loose activity during the day, and any snow I sent downhill did not entrain additional snow, perhaps due to a wind crust at the surface. Besides the wet loose avalanche debris, several other cliffs had large rollerballs collected beneath them, though again it was unclear how old they were. Given the storm activity earlier in the week, I speculate that the evidence of past activity was probably from sometime between the 1st and 3rd.