Cornbiscuit

We toured up Cornbiscuit, digging snowpits near the top of treeline and higher on the ridge before skiing westerly slopes back to the car. We found good skiing above treeline and bitterly cold temperatures of −23°F at the parking lot. The route was open in places, but many sections in the first half mile required ducking under alder branches.

We found a weak snowpack structure at both upper and lower elevations, consistent with observations elsewhere around Turnagain Pass. We dug two snowpits at 1,800 ft and had unstable ECT results on facets below a breakable rain crust about one foot deep. We also experienced whumpfing at this same elevation. In response, we avoided steeper terrain while skinning and wrapped around to the west side of the ridge before ascending.

We dug two additional snowpits higher on the ridge at 3,000 ft and observed similarly unstable ECT results. We do not expect this instability to heal quickly and it may become more unstable with increased loading. We managed this hazard by choosing lower angle terrain for our ski descent.

We experienced whumpfing when we stepped off the established skin track to explore undisturbed snow near our 1,800 ft snowpit location. We also saw one smaller slab avalanche that was human triggered in Super Bowl.

We dug two snowpits on a north aspect at 1,800 ft and observed unstable results (ECTP 11 down 15 inches) on facets below a rain crust. We experienced whumpfing at this elevation near the snowpits that was likely this facet layer collapsing in the snowpack.

We dug two additional snowpits on a southerly aspect at 3,000 ft and found similar instability on facets both above and below a wind crust (ECTP 12 and ECTP 16, both approximately one foot down). We did not observe whumpfing at higher elevations.

Snowpits at both upper and lower elevations show a poor snowpack structure with weak facet layers throughout the snowpack.