Loose wet instability and old wind slab avalanches out at The Grill.

We rode out to The Grill (aka Toms Valley) area today to look for loose wet avalanches and to map the snowpack in the 7,500' to 8,000' zone. Conditions along the Jackson Meadows Rd and Perrazzo Meadows Rd provided sufficient coverage. The soft wet snow allowed for snowmobile engines to cool effectively. Snowpack depths increased dramatically above 7,000' allowing for easy cross-country travel.

In the main cliff area/bowl of The Grill, we saw crown lines and debris at least 4 shallow wind slab avalanches. Most of these crowns were less than 1 foot deep. The avalanche outlined on the far right side of the photo likely had a crown depth of 2-3 feet. Talking to other riders in the area confirmed the presence of this deeper crown line yesterday (12/11).

The debris from the loose wet avalanches appeared newer, likely having occurred sometime last night or very early this morning.

A snow pit dug on a NE aspect in open below treeline terrain at 7,800' identified the remnants of the 12/6 buried surface hoar layer. No problematic snowpit test results were observed at this location nor did any tests fail directly on the old surface hoar layer.