Observation: Douglas Island

Location: Wedding Bowl

Date:
Observer:
Marissa Capito
Route & General Observations

Took the standard skin track up to Wedding Bowl. Dug on a North aspect on the bench before the skin track wraps around underneath the cornice path. Ultimately decided to ski elsewhere based on 1) flat light; 2) warming and general concerns about giant cornice shed; 3) not-very-fun wind buff/sun crust/rime observed at higher elevations the previous day.

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?Yes
Collapsing (Whumphing)?No
Cracking (Shooting cracks)?No
Observer Comments

Recent (presumably natural) avalanches observed on Showboat Extreme and Troy bowl from a few days ago. Wind from the previous day and warming factored into our decision-making.

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

Overcast, ~30F, light/no wind

Snow surface

Settled powder

Snowpack

Dug a 120cm pit. Lots of layers in the snowpack to look at- notably numerous rain crusts and density changes (see Snow Pilot pit below). Most concerning layer was around 75 cm, where a density change from 1F to 4F was sandwiched between two rain crusts: ECTN 22, CT 22 at this layer.

Photos & Video
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Snow Pilot Pit for Wedding Bowl on March 20, 2022  

Location