Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
Other than the avalanche described above and debris from another avalanche that occurred earlier this morning, I observed no other signs of instability. New snow at the location of the avalanche triggered by me was 12” . The temperature this morning at 10:45 was 23 degrees, sky was cloudy, and the wind was light. I traveled cautiously today. I would rate the stability fair to poor. I dug a snow pit at 7575’ on a 45 degree north facing slope. The height of snow at this location was about 6.5’ . The weakest snow was located in the upper snow pack approximately 16” down from the snow surface. This 4F layer of rounding facets failed using a moderate amount of force. No propagation was observed while performing an Extended Column Test (ECTN12). I also performed a Compression Test. This CT failed on the same layer. The fracture quality was resistant planar (CT11RP).
Avalanche
I was able to trigger a D1 R1 wind slab avalanche while ski cutting a specific terrain feature. The small avalanche occurred on a steep north facing slope at approximately 7500’ . The bed surface was firm weathered snow that finally got covered by new wind deposited snow which arrived Friday. I believe failure occurred because of a poor bond at the new snow/old snow interface. I did not find evidence of a persistent weak layer. SS-AS-c-R1-D1-I