Observations from Emerald Bay Chute

Rapid warming conditions this morning in the Emerald Bay Chutes. Evidence of a good snow surface refreeze from last night existed in the area during the morning hours. Snow surface conditions remained ski and boot supportable up until just after 12:00 pm (photo 1). At that time, around 4 cm of surface wet snow existed on top of a fairly weak 10 cm thick melt freeze crust. The remains of the melt-freeze crust were 4F to 1 F hard and seemed likely to lose skier supportability prior to the 12:30 to 1 pm time frame. Descending the mostly E aspect chute from 11:45 to noon, skier triggered roller balls occurred off of turns in the steeper sections, but no new loose wet avalanche activity occurred. The surface snow on NE aspects on adjacent terrain remained transitional.  On the ridgetop around 8,900', N aspect surface snow was for the most part unaffected by melt-freeze. On low angle N aspects, there was a 1 cm thick 1 F hard melt-freeze crust (photo 2).

Signs of newly skier triggered loose wet avalanche activity was noted from Hwy 89 in two nearby areas NE-E aspects.