I spent the weekend in Marriot Basin. Not much snow there for this time of year. The trail is definitely skiable, but coming down through the forest is a bit rough at the lower elevations with logs and other debris feelable under the skis. Higher up the meadows still have alder standing. First meadow has about 1m of snow.
At the cabins elevation (1800m East Aspect) had a look into the snow. About 1.2m of snow depth. A laminate of 4f facets and decomposing ice crusts makes up the bottom 20-30cm. Above is a 1m slab of P-F density snow. Got a Moderate Compression Test (CTM) on the Facets, and an Easy Compression Test (CTE) in the new snow -30 cm down from the surface. Both fractured nice and clean (SP).The usual story.... A bit wind effected on the surface at this and higher elevations. Air temperatures where around -3.
The only recent (with the last few days) avalanche activity we saw in the upper valley was the slope above the cabin. A large slab probably released last storm in steep rock terrain. Crown was deep, to the Dec 6 crust. Also, debris was visible under the S aspects above the 1st lake, but no crown line where visible.
Traveled in ways to avoid much exposure to even the bottoms of slide paths, basically very conservatively. Skiing quality was good at Tree Line out of wind effect.
As I was skiing out to the car I started to think things are stabilizing a bit, BUT as we came out of the trees onto the logging road there was the result of a new Class 3 that had pulled out from the East aspect slopes above. Must have happened after the previous nights snow – there was no new snow on the debris or on the forest foliage that it had shaken. Crow ran 450m across the slope releasing 3 separate start zones at elevations from 1800-2000m. Crowns depth was 1-3m. This slide ran full path to below the road. What I found spooky was it only snowed 2-3 cm, with light winds the night this slide released. The slope must have been just primed to go.
Dave Sarkany
Ski Guide