Powder at Powderhouse

Winter conditions existed throughout the approach, with below freezing temps and light to moderate snow falling through most of the afternoon. Loose dry slough was occuring on steeper sections of skin track and on the way down. At the ridgeline, cornices and windslabs were observed. Small wind slabs were releasing with a little extra force under the ski. Slabs were primarly releasing on the recent snow layer at the surface. Little propagation would occur.  Some larger chunks released did not cause any remote triggers or any stepdowns of any sort downslope. Pit profile of 155cm showed a rightside up pack. CT tests showed little results, no SC or SP,  just CT15 Q3 RP and CT27 Q3 BRK. With breaking clouds opening visibilty, no signs of recent natural avalanches.

When digging down to find the dec 15th rain crust, we finally hit it around 300cm below the surface. Snow down this deep was wet and packed easy. There was no signs of facets, if anything looked like clustered grains beginning to round and break down. Snow temps this deep were -3c almost isothermic. Temps increasingly got colder moving up 20cm at a time up towards the surface averaging -5.5c.