Quick report
A brief afternoon outing before a change in the weather.
- The snow surface held fields of surface hoar on shaded aspects. Up to 12 inches of dry, fluffy snow is found below this weak layer.
- On solar aspects, this week's sunshine melted snow off tree branches up to the summit of WMR (6700 feet). We found a melt-freeze crust of variable thickness on any slope that had received prolonged solar. Surprisingly, even due east aspects were affected at 6400 feet.
- Rollerballs and small, wet loose sluffs were observed on steep southerly slopes such as the Skook Chutes.
- The Avalanche Beacon Training Park is installed and ready for use at the summit of the WMR ski area. Thanks to the sponsors who made this possible.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 26
- Cloud Cover
- scattered
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
High, thin clouds limited surface warming.
Snowpack
We dug one snowpit on an east aspect at 6400 feet shaded from the sun. The snow depth was 43 inches (108 cm).
The layers of concern were a 5 cm thick pencil-hard crust formed during the November Atmospheric River event, capping a 2 cm thick layer of small-grained facets.
Compression and Extended Column tests failed in the facets with moderate force, but the slab was too soft to propagate. (CT 15, 16) (ECTN 15)