Snowpit from Talking Mountain

Windscoured portions of ridge near Talking Mountain showed scouring of all recent snow back to recent rain crust. Snow warmed throughout the day and became noticeably heavier as we exited the area. Open slopes at lower elevations nearer to Echo Lake were covered in Surface Hoar deep enough to be noticed skiing, heard audibly, and easily visible with the naked eye.

Pit dug in opening below treeline. Neither naked eye nor scope revealed presence of Surface Hoar beneath rain crust at 91cm height. Snowpack beneath this layer appeared more cohesive and more uniform than what was previously oberved in this area. 

Photo 1: Old presumed natural avalanche crown and debris. This and another mostly obscured crown and debris were observed at the midslope steeper section of Talking Mt above the slide paths. There was limited evidence of previous skier traffic on Talking and no observed tracks entering or exiting the avalanche area. Best guess is that the avalanche ran on Sunday 12/13 based on the only partial obscuring by snow. This portion of the mountain is low enough to have avoided most of this week's east wind scouring.    

Photo 2: Lower Echo Lake appears largely frozen but open water remains.