Avalanche Intro Class obs

Our group - students and instructors - stayed primarily within the WMR boundary. We did, however, get outside the ropeline to practice some skills. We found:

• 3-6" of recent/ fresh snow  that is low density and not forming much of a slab - F to F+ hard, variety of grains, barely cohesive.
• On an easterly, midelevation slope, we found the stack-O-ice layers described in numerous obs lately, with some differences. The 2/5 crust is thin and easy to miss, though it's only buried ~15 cm below the surface. 
• The 2/1 crust is thick, at least P hard, with some percolation channels hanging from it. It's topped with pine needles and other wind debris. The weakest snow in the top 120 cm of the snowpack is the soft snow below this crust, though this layer did not propagate or collapse in tests (CT, ECT, PST) except 1. 
• The 1/24 and MLK crusts are also present, and refrozen water (rain from the 1/24 ) has penetrated 10-20 cm below the 1/24, though this is spotty.
• Winds were intermitttanty gusty and after early afternoon, from the northeast at times. We saw some blowing snow but limited drifting. 
• We didn't see any avalanches in the Skook Chutes during limited windws when we clouds parted and we were in position to view them