Blue Lakes

Excellent day out in Blue Lakes with this weekend's SAC Motorized Level 1 Class!  We could see an avalanche that likely occurred sometime during the last couple days from the parking lot while gearing up....a good way to verify today's forecast.  Known/approximate details are included.  

We played in low angle terrain for the majority of the field day but did slope cut a few short, steep test slopes on northerly aspects.  The snow showed no signs of instability (cracking, collapsing, etc.) in the terrain sampled.  Settled HST from the Tu/Wed storm is around 2ft. at 8K.  This snow is resting on a 1in melt/freeze crust.

Below treeline, surface conditions in flat terrain and slopes with a southerly component got wet, and will likely be sporting a sun crust tomorrow.  

Partly sunny skies with intermittent periods of S-1 snowfall throughout the day.  Light winds with the occasional moderate gust low in the drainage around 8K where we were hanging out for the majority of the afternoon.  Winds in exposed terrain at higher elevations appeared to be gusty moderate and were observed building cornices and transporting snow to lee aspects throughout the day.