Wind Slabs and Small Sun Breaks on Andesite

About 30cm of new snow had accumulated in the Andesite Peak area. This new snow rested on top of a moist and slowly refreezing crust with wet snow below that. Observations indicated that the new snow was bonding well to the crust. In the morning the new snow was denser near the crust (at the base of the new snow) and lighter and colder near the surface. During the day the surface layer of the new snow started to become slightly heavier as it warmed up. This warming caused the top 2 to 5 cm of the new snow to start to become slightly wet and sticky by 12:00 pm especially on slopes that received any amount of sun exposure.

A small ski kick on an E facing wind-loaded test slope triggered a 2 to 15 cm surface slab just after a short period of sunshine on that slope at 11:00 am.

Ski cuts, ski kicks, and dropping cornice pieces on other more ENE facing wind-loaded test slopes did trigger some deeper shooting cracks (up to 25cm deep) and one smaller wind slab (about 15 to 20 cm deep). Cornices above these slopes were fragile and very easy to trigger several feet away from the cornice edge.

Mostly cloudy skies with a few significant sun breaks dominated the morning. By the afternoon convective snow showers had started to develop over the area.