Public Observation #2022-904

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

None reported

Observations

Beautiful day up on Ball Butte today, but not so beautiful snow conditions. To echo yesterday's report from tumalo bowl, most of the east aspects of ball were very wind affected and generally unpleasant to ski. The NE bowl looked just as scalloped, but we did not ski that line. There were some chalky sections in the east faces that were decent turns. Great views though!

We dug a quick pit at the wilderness boundary on the S side of ball and easily identified the buried surface hoar layer that's been previously discussed. At this location that layer was 41cm deep, and much more intact than I had expected it to look. We saw a sudden collapse (#24) on this layer, but it did not propagate in an ECT.