5 Days were spent camped in the Cassiope/Saxifrage area near the Duffey Lake Road from March 8th-12th.
A healthy amount of snow exists at 1700m (2-3 meters).
All solar aspects received a sun crust and a few loose wets were observed during these periods of heating March 8-10th. On March 9th, an isolated natural size 1.5 slab in immediate lee was noticed. It looked to have failed in the new snow of March 7th. This pocket seemed to range from 20-40cm deep (deeper than the average 10-15 everywhere else).
North, sheltered aspects provided the best skiing with 10cm overlying old facetted powder. There was little in terms of avalanche hazard during the period of March 8-10th. Temperatures were predominantly -10 to -15C. Nights were likely cooler.
On March 11th, stormy weather was predominantly coming from the southeast. 15 centimetres fell in the storm throughout the day and the winds shifted to northerlies in the PM. Temperatures were predominantly -5 to -7C
Concerns for storm slabs during the 11th were primarily in areas where wind was transporting snow. Some size 1 avalanches were noticed in steep immediate lee of ridge crests and cracking observed in the top 10cm lower on slopes.
On March 12th, 2 storm slabs size 2.5-3 were observed on north aspects from during the storm and post-storm. Solar aspects were already moist in the AM. Suspect loose wet avalanches on solar aspects this afternoon. We skied conservative terrain and found no cracking in areas skied.
Happy skiing!