22-23

Toured into the hellroaring creek 3/15-3/19. Snowing and blowing hard on 3/15 till approx 1500 hrs when wind veered to the north and skies cleared for the rest of the trip with generally cold temps and light winds. Solar aspects heating up in the day with extensive sun crusting on steeper slopes facing the south half of the compass. Observed aftermath of extensive avy cycle(s) one of which prior party reported occurred approx 3/10-11 at higher elevations on Nemesis (above 8000 ft.). And another on lower elevation steep slopes above creek at approx 7500 ft that may have ran during the storm on 3/14 as less snow covered that debris than the higher elev runouts. Everything observed were on westerly aspects and deep slab avalanches breaking approx 90-120 cm down. We did not investigate the weak layer. Suspect it to be the crust facet combo observed by a previous party in early March. Heavy wet snow possibly mixed with rain on 3/14-15 likely tipped the scales for these lower elevation slopes below 7500. No signs of instability of the new storm/wind slab during the five day trip, however we did get a few large collapses but these were isolated to heavily wind loaded areas in more exposed terrain. No other natural or human triggered avalanches observed during the trip. Many machiners were out testing steep slopes after the storm and we saw no signs of any human triggered avalanches. We did not measure height of snow but judging by the buried hut and the non-motorized boundary signs barely poking out of the snow, thinking about 10 feet deep at 8000 ft.

Toured into the hellroaring creek 3/15-3/19. Snowing and blowing hard on 3/15 till approx 1500 hrs when wind veered to the north and skies cleared for the rest of the trip with generally cold temps and light winds. Solar aspects heating up in the day with extensive sun crusting on steeper slopes facing the south half of the compass. Observed aftermath of extensive avy cycle(s) one of which prior party reported occurred approx 3/10-11 at higher elevations on Nemesis (above 8000 ft.). And another on lower elevation steep slopes above creek at approx 7500 ft that may have ran during the storm on 3/14 as less snow covered that debris than the higher elev runouts. Everything observed were on westerly aspects and deep slab avalanches breaking approx 90-120 cm down. We did not investigate the weak layer. Suspect it to be the crust facet combo observed by a previous party in early March. Heavy wet snow possibly mixed with rain on 3/14-15 likely tipped the scales for these lower elevation slopes below 7500. No signs of instability of the new storm/wind slab during the five day trip, however we did get a few large collapses but these were isolated to heavily wind loaded areas in more exposed terrain. No other natural or human triggered avalanches observed during the trip. Many machiners were out testing steep slopes after the storm and we saw no signs of any human triggered avalanches. We did not measure height of snow but judging by the buried hut and the non-motorized boundary signs barely poking out of the snow, thinking about 10 feet deep at 8000 ft.