Andesite South

Our AIARE 2 class planned for a very conservative tour today- Utilizing low angle terrain through the day to avoid ANY avalanche terrain.  We observed heavy rates of snow fall ( s5) with overcast skies in the morning that started to show some hints of blue skies with light snowfall in the afternoon.   We observed  blowing snow and moderate winds near ridge tops, although winds in sheltered areas seemed a bit lighter than forecast through out the day.   We utilized test slopes, hand sheers and undercut skin tracks to test the storm instability with no significant results in the morning. Our group worked our way higher in the terrain near Andesite Ridge following a skin track set by some forecasters we had chatted with earlier during our tour.  There was evidence of a storm slab that had failed during the storm as the debris were reburied. This was the same avalanche reported by the SAC forecasters in the area.   We found great right side up skiing on low angle slopes and didn't observe any shooting cracks during our decent. 

We dug a pit and preformed a series of stability tests on a NE aspect at 7880 feet.  We didn't observe any poor structure in the snow pack or any faceting near the most recent rain crust.  We had a CT 4 Q1 that yielded a result of ECTN11 about 30 cm below the surface but didn't have any other pertinent results in our stability tests.