Quick report
- Collapsing
- isolated
A quick tour up to the Peanut to do a bunch of digging revealed lingering signs of instability with the current persistent slab problem. We triggered one collapse and received propagating results in stability tests on E, N, and W aspects. Although the problem presents as stubborn, it's still keeping us out of avalanche terrain in areas where we can affect the weak snow below... which is most places...
We triggered one large collapse at 9600 feet on a north aspect ~100 feet away from other nearby ski tracks.Weather
- Cloud Cover
- obscured
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 3
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Calm and obscured most of the day with S-1 snowfall from 11am to 2pm accumulating a trace of snow above 8000 feet.
Snowpack
We ended up digging quick pits on all cardinal aspects today to observe the similarities and differences between them. All pits had relatively shallow depths compared to many other areas of our forecast region, and we targeted that to clue into places where we suspect triggering a large persistent slab is easier. All pits were dug between 8700 and 9600 feet.
- The east and north pits were the most similar and illustrate the current stubborn persistent slab problem the clearest with cohesive AR slabs sitting atop very weak January drought snow
- The west pit showed the least cohesive overall structure, probably due to the frequent temperature/sunshine fluctuations it experiences
- As expected, the south pit exhibited the most stable snowpack with a very consolidated AR slab sitting above a frozen mass resulting from January's drought.
Stability test results showed propagation in all pits, except south, on weak facets below the 1/31 interface.