Observer
Ian Bryant 

Keep me anonymous if published
no

Location (general area)
Angeles Crest 

Date (yyyymmdd)
20260220

Time
12:00

Road conditions to area

Temperature

Sky
Broken clouds (4/8 but not all)

Wind speed
Moderate (17-25mph Small trees sway/ flags stretched)

Wind direction
NW

Wind direction in degrees

Slope aspect
North

Aspect in degrees

Slope angle

Elevation

Snow depth
145cm

Boot/ Ski penetration
Top boot


Precipitation
None

Activity, recent avalanches
No

Brief description

Whumphing noises, shooting cracks. collapsing
no

Rapid warming
no

Obvious avalanche path
yes

Terrain trap
yes

Comment
Friday February 20th 2026
9200’ above Angeles crest highway 
North/North East aspects observed 

Began our climb at about 6am with extremely cold temps and brisk WNW wind, windchills this morning reported being consistently zero F or below which cut right through us… 
New snow which fell the previous day (2/19) at 6400’ measured approx 15 cm with obvious signs of wind transport, affect and loaded features. This new snow was very poorly bonded with the existing storm snowpack from days previous. Made obvious under load and made touring and traversing very difficult and slow going. Ski cuts while traversing regularly sent ski length slabs of snow down hill. This poorly bonded, wind transported new snow was stubborn and persistent until about 8k, where it became noticeably cohesive under ski while traversing/touring, which it became quite nice to break trail with good traction once elevation was gained. New snow at 8k measured 20cm, over previous days storm snow of 75cm. 

At 9200’ a total snow depth of 120cm was observed on north slope. CT/ECTN yielded no result. 

No other signs instability, or of natural slides were observed on our tour today.

Publish this observation
Yes I would like this observation Published

North east aspect 9,000’

Signs of settling nearing 8k