Observation: Pleasant Creek

Observation Date
2/15/2020
Observer Name
John Pikus & Zeb Engberg
Region
Skyline » Pleasant Creek
Location Name or Route
Pleasant Creek
Weather
Sky
Overcast
Wind Direction
West
Wind Speed
Moderate
Weather Comments
Sunny in the morning, with clouds moving in by early afternoon. Winds were probably on the high end of moderate but didn't appear to be transporting snow in the areas we traveled.
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Dense Loose
Wind Crust
Melt-Freeze Crust
Snow Characteristics Comments
The warm temperatures today killed any near-surface faceting on the snow surface in areas we traveled. This is great news because in the same area on Thursday the snow surface was beginning to weaken. Snow surfaces ranged from stubborn old wind slabs right underneath ridgelines to dense, maybe slightly damp settled powder on north aspects. We did not experience any signs of instability with the old wind slabs and did not note any fresh wind drifts.
Comments
Toured in the Pleasant Creek area at elevations ranging from 7,400 to 10,200 feet on predominantly north aspects. Old news by now but it seems like pretty much any steep, high elevation slope that had any eastern component to its aspect avalanched after the storm a week ago. Most of these avalanches were pretty small wind slabs that did not run too far. The exception, which I think is pretty noteworthy was the NE face of the third slide path that crosses the road in Pleasant Creek. This avalanche ran almost all the way to the road and left a sizeable debris pile that partially filled the exit gully. The starting zone was left with very shallow looking snow and lots of bushes poking out, leading us to think that this avalanche may have even broken into old weak snow from the early season. I attached a couple photos below. We are not sure of the history of this slope but think that it may be a repeater that has avalanched several times this year and hasn't built up the deep and strong snowpack that is characteristic of most of the area.
Overall danger seemed low today. Only red flag we observed was some faceting under a wind crust on a north facing slope around 10,000 feet. We think that this is a very isolated issue though as we only found it within about 50 feet or so of the ridgelines. We think the new snow should bond well to existing snow surfaces, which seem to consist of either melt-freeze crusts on solar aspects and slightly damp settled powder or wind board on mid and high elevation north aspects. For tomorrow I'd probably say moderate unless the incoming storm overdelivers.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Low
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Moderate
Coordinates