We will be out of town April 20 - 26 for the spring American Avalanche Association Board meetings, so will not be able to post during that week, but here is a quick summary of recent reports and our concerns.

New snowfall is continuing at starting zone elevations. Block testing fieldwork on the 19th on Sheep Mountain encountered winter-like snowpack with heavy E wind transport, two buried stellar crystal and graupel weak layers at about 30 and 60 cm depths between windslabs, and test block scores in the 4 to 6 range on gentle 36° slopes. Snow temperatures were still cold, no thaw yet.

Some natural releases were occurring, instability due to ongoing windloading was obvious. We chose our terrain with extreme caution and stayed entirely off steeps and lee slopes.

We have been getting reports of continued good skiing in fresh snow in the now-closed Eaglecrest area. On the heavily-skied runs the bond to the underlying snow should be good, but the same weak layer we describe in our April 15 field report is still there in areas without compaction, so take care to keep track of and evaluate it.

There have been lots of avalanches recently in the Haines 33 Mile area, including some very close near-misses, sympathetic releases, and a near-full burial. Instability on a suspected buried surface hoar layer was so widespread that heliski operators shut down to wait for the snow to settle and strengthen.

Mid-Lynn Canal Lions Head area on the 18th at 750m on East aspect 38° slope had 15cm new at a blower 70 Kg/m3 powder on an icy thaw crust; top layer slid on 45° test slopes but slushy melt-freeze under the 10cm thaw crust took multiple hard jumps to go at shear quality 3 (irregular and slow) in all tests. That aspect and elevation are now slushy to the bottom, even the old depth hoar. So not much instability. Good skiing but the base could still be felt.

Winter is not yet over. Whenever we get warming or rain to elevation, expect another avalanche cycle, and watch for heavy loading so long as the new snowfall continues.