Quick report
We had an enjoyable day in the mountains. We avoided avalanche terrain due to the results of stability tests and the poor snowpack structure observed wherever we dug down.
No signs of recent instability were observed.Weather
- Air Temp
- 28
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- light
- Rain Elevation
- Not Observed
- Recent Snowfall
- Trace
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Clear, sunny day. Light gusts out of the SW at the ridgetops.
Snowpack
Dug a snowpit at 7950' (see attached Snowpilot graph). Snowpack was shallow 75cm/2.5'. Several melt freeze crusts were observed from the many warm-ups and rain events. The bottom 20cm/8in of the snowpack was rotten sugary snow. I found well-developed striated crystals mixed in with rounded grains. This snow was very weak, I could not make a snowball with it. While conducting an Extended Column Test (ECT) the whole column failed on this weak sugary snow with 11 taps. Despite all the thick crusts and hard snow above this layer, it is still reactive and dangerous.
I found this weak sugary snow at the base of the snowpack on every aspect I dug on above 7000'
I saw remnants of old wet loose debris coming off cliffs. Likely from the last rain event.