Small wet loose avalanches and a small wet wind slab avalanche at Stanford Rock. Still dry Feb 14 facets at Polaris Point.

We went to Polaris Point and Stanford Rock today to have a look at wet snow avalanche problems and to check on the buried Feb 14 near surface facet layer. We experienced a mix of rain and snow with snow level ranging from 6,600' up to 7,000'. Above 7,000' the up to 2 inches of new snow was wet up to our highpoint of travel at 8,400. In some areas the new snow was soaked where it had been dripped on by melt from the forest canopy. Precipitation seemed to end abruptly around 11:30 am and cloud cover began to break up.

On our way up we stopped at 7,300', a short ways below Polaris Point to look at the old Feb 14 facet layer. Here we spread out, probing and digging hand pits in numerous areas and performing snowpit tests at two different locations. The Feb 14 facet layer was about 1 foot below the snow surface. In some areas the facets were moist while in more isolated areas the facets remained dry. We performed snowpit tests in two locations were the facets remained dry. Only in one location did we get propagating results. While the top of the snowpack was wet, this moisture had not penetrated down to the facet layer.

Signs of potential wet snow instability such as roller balls and pinwheels were prevalent throughout our ascent. Once we ascended up to Stanford Rock at 8,400' were were able to engage with some small avalanche terrain. Here we were able to intentionally trigger some size D1 wet loose avalanches. We were also able to trigger one size D1 hybrid wind slab/wet slab that was 6 inches deep and propagated about 15 feet wide.

We avoided avalanche terrain for the remainder of our descent back to Ward Creek and saw no other signs of instability or nearby natural avalanches.

If the snow surface in this area refreezes tonight as forecast, there will be a mix a supportable and breakable crusts across the terrain.