Slippery, slidey

Snowmobiled and skied in the Skyland area, looking for early-season and holiday crusts, as well as near-surface hazards.

• One recent large natural avalanche that ran on a northeast-facing slope from below a corniced ridge near 7200 feet. Though clouds obscured the crown, it looks to have run about 900 feet. The debris looked shallow. It likely involved recently-drifted snow; a natural cornice fall driven by warming may have been the trigger. 
• 1-2 other older crowns of small-large natural avalanches elsewhere along the ridge or on the same face, along with 1 fresh, small loose dry avalanche. 
• 2-5" of low density snow in the past 24 hours. This grew sticky as temperatures warmed to near/above freezing, especially below 6000 feet. Some rollerballs as high as 6700 ft. 
• By mid-afternoon, most mid-elevation steep, southerly slopes were striped with rollerballs and their tracks. 
• Hand blocks released about ~10 and 20" below the surface. Sticky; took some pulling, but the breaks were planar. The interfaces looked non-persistent. No sudden results on CTs or ECT.
• The holiday and MLK crusts weren't present in a full-depth profile at 6500 ft. Another from early season was, about 30 cm above the ground (P hard) with rounding 2mm facets above it (11/19). It collapsed in small column tests (DT22-3 SC). This was the only distinct weak layer in the profile and still has the potential to produce avalanches.
• Driving down the Middle Fork was like driving into a rain forest. Fog, clouds, showers. Lots of rollerballs on all aspects, but none had entrained snow in loose wet slides by 5 pm. 

We climbed and skied short pitches up to 40 degrees that were clear from overhead hazards (cornice fall, wind slabs, DPS) that might have lurked in the very steep, rocky terrain near the ridge.