Looking for instability

Looking for instability

Date
Activity
Snowmobiling

We rode into Teepee Basin first. We had perfect visibility and saw no avalanches. We dug on the far north ridge on a south facing slope: HS 105, ECTN25 on facets about 40 cm off the ground. There is a lack of recent ava activity and ECTN score, which point towards a snowpack trending towards stability, but the snowpack structure is still suspect: facets underlying a slab.  

Next we rode to a small and recent avalanche in Cabin Creek. We were alerted to it last night. Although it was steep and wind-loaded, it illustrated the lurking problem we are finding in most areas. Faceted snow is not entirely trusted. We did not see evidence of avalanches on Skyline ridge and folks are starting to climb.

 

Region
Southern Madison
Location (from list)
Cabin Creek
Observer Name
Doug Chabot