Quick report
- Collapsing
- Observed
Lots of tracks in Basin on NE facing aspects. We wanted to check out the SE facing aspects on this cloudy day to see how the last couple days sun had affected the snow. Found surprisingly unstable conditions on SE aspect - appeared to be the same issue weak layer we were finding on NE aspects yesterday. No signs of recent wet loose or dry loose slides. The sun did pop through the clouds around noon and began heating up the aspect considerably. No roller balls were noted. Collapsing "wumpfing" on SE aspect at roughly 5800 feet.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 30
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Warmer day - no winds - the sun did pop out and heat up the area after noon.
Snowpack
Pit Test: 5800 feet SE aspect CT4 @28cm 150cm depth Thin crust on top 25cm soft unconsolidated snow from last storm (appeared unconsolidated but not cohesive) (Fist) Feb Crust 30cm below snow surface Below Feb Crust is a 45cm thick slab of ice - pinpoint - made digging the pit very difficult Below slab of ice to ground is wet soft slushy snow CT test failed a few cm above the February crust. Believed to be the same layer that failed on yesterday's pit test in adjacent drainage on NE aspect. We speculate that the woompfing occurred on this same layer. Unable to complete ECT test as the thick ice slab prevented the ECT cord from isolating the snow block. The woompfing and CT4 were enough for us to decide to abandon our objective and safely ski down the basin.