Tiekel Trees

Travelled up Tiekel Trees to have a look at a more interior snowpack in a zone a few miles north of our Continental forecast area.  We found the 1/26 layer of buried surface hoar to be intact, 1-2 cms, and standing upright on top of a rain crust.  This is the first location were we have observed this layer to be upright instead of laying down.  Buried surface hoar is far more dangerous where it is found standing upright.  The slab above is not as dense or deep as what is found on Thompson Pass however with more snow or wind compaction this area may become reactive to human and machine triggers.

Below this facet crust combo there was various rain crusts and 2 feet of advanced depth hoar at the bottom of the snowpack.  One of the most notable observations was that our ski penetration was only 6 inches, but when we got off our skis to dig a pit we sunk through the entire snowpack ~4 feet.

This area typically has a weaker snowpack compared to Thompson Pass, but the degree of poor structure and strength was notable.

 

Collapsing was observed in multiple locations. Small shooting cracks were observed near the valley floor.

Found a snowpack with poor structure, poor strength and moderate propagation within depth hoar.  

Pit results at 2400'/NE produced: ECTN4 down 23 cms (1/26 buried surface hoar).    ECTP17 down 65 cms (top of depth hoar layer)

See full pit profile for more details