Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
The Ahtanum is doing well for this time of year. Snowpack depths ranged from 90 cm at Ahtamnum Campground and exceeded 215 cm at my transition point at 6600 ft. The upper 3 or so feet of this snowpack is where we may have some problems in the coming days/weeks.
Buried surface hoar was the culprit of the long shooting cracks and propagating test results.
Weather
- Air Temp
- High 20's
- Cloud Cover
- obscured
- Wind Loading
- light
- Rain Elevation
- 3000 ft
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Snowpack
Once above 6000 ft, l was greeted by long, shooting cracks and propagating test results on a layer of buried surface hoar. This layer sat roughly 1 ft below the snow surface. I found this weak layer along N-E aspects in this area, but I didn't find it in the one spot I dug on south (which doesn't mean it doesn't exist). Other groups at the TH reported triggering slabs up 1' deep along smaller slopes off the ridge. This layer is the most concerning.
The 12/27, which I found roughly 45-55 cm down produced SP results with CT's and ECTN's with longer columns. While not super concerning, it will be worth tracking.
The solstice crust is quite deep. It ranges from 90- 130 cm in the areas I dug. I did find some rounding facets above this crust, but due to the depth, it didn't produce any notable results with ECT's/CT's. I didn't complete a deep tap, but this would be the preferred test for this layer.