Observation: Chicken Hill

Lots to observe today. Surface hoar, settlement and bunches of avalanches from last week's cycle.

There were two things that caught my attention today. One, there were numerous cracked slabs from last week that did not actually run. Two, the avalanche at the top of Chicken Hill was much bigger once I got there. I have not yet seen this path slide and it was certainly big enough to snap a few trees and run quite far into the flats.

Needless to say, the east facing avalanches all ran on the weak faceted layer and had been overloaded by strong westerly winds during the storm.

Dug a quick pit on a NNE facing slope (8700'). The wind slab was about 3' thick and topped about 12" of facets. After nearly breaking my hand, the slab finally failed (at the facets) and propagated at 28.

Snowmobiles might just exert the force necessary to cause these persistent slabs to fail.

A variety of snow conditions today dependent on the aspect. South was warm and corning up nicely. East was blown in and supportable. North (sheltered) was topped with surface hoar so low angles were fast and fun. In exposed areas near the ridge the snow was wind scoured and bulletproof. Lots of scrub brush poking through on the ridge-top flats.