Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
I toured up to around 6,100’ on Peagravel Ridge- just above treeline. There was about 6-8 inches of new snow below treeline sitting on top of a crust from yesterday’s warmup, which was above the January drought crust. The snow below the January drought crust was wet from the rain yesterday. This changed drastically as we approached treeline. Around treeline, we found about a foot of storm snow on top of the January drought crust with significant faceting underneath. Snow stability tests highlighted the weakness of this layer as CT’s were failing in isolation. My partner performed a multitude of other snow stability tests, including a propagation saw test, which highlighted the weak layer’s propensity to propagate even though the storm snow had not settled into a slab on top. We also noticed several layers failing within the storm snow but the major focus was on the ~5cm thick layer of facets below the January drought crust. Above treeline we took note of significant blowing snow on all aspects. Surprisingly, the western aspect of the ridge held stiffer and more widespread windslabs than the eastern side, but that is not to say that there wasn’t wind effected snow on the eastern side. There were noticeable soft slabs present on specific terrain features. Due to time we did not get high above treeline to investigate the wind slabs at upper elevations.