Observation: Douglas Island

Location: Mt Troy

Date:
Observer:
Sam Roche Professional
Route & General Observations

Spent the day touring in the vicinity of Mt Troy and observed an unstable snowpack on west aspects. We avoided most avalanche terrain, and ultimately backed off any avalanche terrain based on our obs.

Red Flags
Red flags are simple visual clues that are a sign of potential avalanche danger. Please record any sign of red flags below.
Obvious signs of instability
Recent Avalanches?No
Collapsing (Whumphing)?Yes
Cracking (Shooting cracks)?Yes
Observer Comments

The most obvious sign of instability was fairly widespread collapsing above ~2300'. We experienced a couple of rather significant collapses covering large pieces of terrain. The shooting cracks were found in more isolated areas where recent windloading had occured.

Weather & Snow Characteristics
Please provide details to help us determine the weather and snowpack during the time this observation took place.
Weather

Snow showers up to ~2cm/hr, and moderate winds.

Snow surface

Lots of new snow!

Snowpack

Dug a hasty pit at ~2800' on a NW aspect. ECTP 11 on top of the thanksgiving crust, which was 55cm deep (see photo). We tried to look at the weak layer, but it was too snowy/blowy to get a good look. While not 100% confident on the layer ID - it looked like a thin layer of small facets above the crust.

We were surprised how little snow we got to move on test slopes, and by the fact we didn't observe any natural avalanches considering the significant new load on a known persistent weak layer.

Photos & Video
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Low quality photo of our snowpit. ECTP  

Location