Tuckerman Ravine

Yesterday the forecast team went into Tuckerman Ravine at around 1:30pm. The temperature was 28 degrees F, winds were strong out of the west, and skies were obscured. We noted a wide crown line in the upper start zones of Chute and the Headwall and the exposed bed surface looked rain affected. Evidence of old avalanche debris in the bottom of the ravine spread down past Lunch Rocks. Snow depth and consistency had a wide range of variability as we traveled. We encountered a solid, frozen bed surface in areas that the wind had scoured, in other areas we found deep wind drifted snow, and still in other areas we found a 3 inch wind skin which cracked under our feet. Overall there was significant spatial variability of conditions in the ravine. Our objective was to dig a pit and get a better sense of the snowpack. At 4537 feet elevation, on an east, southeast aspect, we found a pocket of wind drifted snow to dig in. Probing indicated the snow depth at this location was between 200 and 210 cm. We dug on a 25 degree slope angle and found a generally uniform 1F+ hard snowpack for over 80 cm. In our pit at approximately 85 cm we found a crust layer that was pencil hard. This layer varied in overall thickness from 3 cm to 6 cm depending where it was found in our pit. At approximately 100 cm, a damp granular snow was found. In our compression tests we found an un-reactive snowpack (CTN and ECT28) which was likely from the very strong winds that had been compacting snow into the area of our pit for over 24 hours. These winds were still actively transporting any available snow while we were there. Because of spatial variability we were seeing in terrain during our travel, we felt our pit results were not representative of other areas in the ravine.

Tuckerman Ravine

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