Quick report
We continue to question the dormancy of deeply buried persistent weak layers in the snowpack, especially at middle elevations. Today, we found those deeply buried weak layers unstable in testing and widespread in distribution above 7500'.
The snow surface was generally moist up to ~8500' and made the skiing and snow machining a bit tricky (it felt like mashed potatoes). The surface moisture didn't get to the point of wet loose activity today, but we did see evidence of a variety of natural wet loose avalanches on formerly sun-drenched slopes during our field day.
Unstable test results are only signs of instability (more in snowpack section).Weather
- Air Temp
- 30
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- trace
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Overcast skies transitioning to obscured as the snow started to fall around 12:30pm with light S and SW winds blowing consistently throughout the day.
Snowpack
Lingering weak snow: We found unstable test results on weak early December snow buried ~3' (85cm) below the surface. The test results were ECTP23@30cm x2 and PST 45/100 END @30cm. These facets were found on all aspects and elevations above 7500' that we travelled today. The facets are moist and rounding... but are still capable of producing a very large avalanche.
Surface snow: Below 8500', recent warm temperatures moistened the upper 2-4" of the snowpack and led to easily triggerable small rollerballs while skinning and skiing. Above 8,500', the snow remained dry above the most recent crust interface.
Crusts: There's a whole bunch of crusts as a result of the fluctuating rain/snow lines during the holiday storm (see photo below). The quantity and thickness of the crusts decreased as we climbed up towards 9,000'. None of these crust interfaces produced unstable results in stability testing and only found weak snow (moist rounding facets) below the most recent stout crust interface (~1' below the surface).