I spend last weekend teaching an avalanche course in the Mount Baker backcountry. We had some great conditions for teaching an avalanche course with many unstable layers and lots of new snow. The avalanche problems included storm slabs, wind slabs and a deep persistent slab layer. The touring day made for some of the best skiing I have done yet this year. Some amazingly deep snow that stayed light despite some warming temperatures.
avalanche
Leavenworth and Stevens Pass Avalanche Course with American Alpine Institute /
Last week I worked another avalanche course for the American Alpine Institute. This turned out to be a great weekend and a great location for an avalanche course since there was some instability in the snow pack. We were able to view some of the instabilities and find some great snow for a nice ski tour. Some photos of the weekend are below.
A think layer of buried surface hoar is located about 40cm below the surface in many parts of the Cascades.
A close up of the crystals.
Skiing the trees
Skiing the trees.
American Alpine Institute Avalanche Course /
The last couple of weekends have been spent teaching avalanche courses for the American Alpine Institute. Although the snow pack has been a little boring, the weather has been great and it has made for some great courses. Below are a few photos of the last two trips.
Early morning skiing in some nice light.
Route finding and some wet surface conditions.
Although most of the snow was pretty solid, Small areas of instability were found. Here we conduct compression tests on the snow.
Failure layers in the first 20cm.
Time to ski.
A little route finding practice.
South slopes with lots of sun showed evidence of recent slides.
Mount Baker in the distance.
Skinning to find good snow.
Good snow had been located.