Natural R3D3 Avalanche on Elephant 's Back

Natural avalanche that ran past the mid slope bench and into the flats. I suspect it was a cornice fall trigger around sunrise. Some of the debris had new surface hoar growing on it. Some debris had a dusting of snow on top, but it was likely from the powder cloud and not from additional snowfall - more snow on top of the debris at the toe than elsewhere.

Crown profile showed a mixed layer of small facets and surface hoar just below the new/old interface, at close to the same height as the avalanche. An ECT propagated along this layer, on a hard tap. The weak layer had very strong snow just above it, and lower along the path that strong layer became a rain crust that was exposed where wind scoured.

Other observations: I was impressed to already see settlement cones and cracks around trees. The storm snow was quite dense and provided easy skinning conditions. Informal observations did not show signs of instability. Another round of surface hoar was observed at the surface. While driving up Woodfords Canyon on our way to Carson Pass, the trees below Hope Valley did not have any fresh snow in them, but above Hope Valley they did (indicating the rain line at the end of the storm).