February 26, 2017

Observations

Arctic Valley:

Bowl directly south of Arctic Valley ski area:

Surface conditions: no recent snow within the last 48 hours; ridges are scoured. Some west and north aspects appear windloaded. South aspects appear cross loaded with sun baked snow. Light wind. Temp approx. 20° F in the shade; much warmer in the sun.

Two recent natural shallow wind slab avalanches (D1) observed on Northwest aspects at 1200m ASL, no direct physical observations were made on this aspect. Run out approximately 750 to 1000m (see picture).

We dug a pit on the backside of Arctic Valley, south aspect, at 1000m ASL. CTH 30, 45cm down on top of 10cm of depth hoar on the ground surface.