CAIC Observation Report
SnowpackDominic Rickicki ยท Jan 26, 2023
Weather
Strong winds, obscured skies with moments of clear skies. Cold.
Snowpack
Hiking out of the DT Apron towards Dead Elk (Above treeline, SE Aspect) we were finding 3-7cm thick windslabs. Hand shears and extended hand shears were yielding planar results with easy failures. We hiked in to the main part of Dead Elk to continue our investigation and found similar results but more resistant failures. The slab seemed to be gaining strength and had low likelihood for propagation, but we decided to not continue further and we skied the lower skiers right side of Dead Elk back to the lake. No avalanches observed. Touring up to the Dream Chutes (North Aspect) afterwards we were able to trigger small windslabs on test slopes at varying aspects the whole way up (2-5cm thick). These near treeline zones appeared to have more reactive new windslabs that were not present yesterday. In the dream chute itself we anticipated there being a potential windslab in the ski run given what we were finding. Upon dropping in we noticed less loading than anticipated and with ski cuts we didn't get any movement. The skiing in here was a little punchy but very pleasant.