Quick report
Today's tour comprised of variable conditions including firm wind slabs, bottomless facets, soft powder, and a shallow snowpack with a ice basal crust and varied significantly from one aspect to the other. Winds previously gusted SE25-30 mph and 22-51 mph on Hatch on 11/15-16 and built shallow wind slabs at and just below ridgelines above 4000'. These wind slabs are inconsistent, isolated, and mostly non-reactive. Cold, clear weather over the past several days has assisted in deteriorating the wind slabs. Soft powder exists in protected locations. In our pit we found a location where the wind slab failed on isolation on weak sugary facets 15 cm down ECTPV. See photo at the bottom. We tried to replicate this result by ski cutting similar locations and stomping on cornices near the ridgeline which only resulted in good stability, no cracking or collapsing. We observed few small dry loose sluffs in steep extreme terrain and no recent slab avalanche activity. The structure of the snowpack is mostly comprised of facets and crusts, should not be trusted until proven innocent, and will likely be problematic with more avalanche activity with the next big storm.
No cracking, collapsing or recent avalanches were observed today. A few small loose dry sluffs were observed that occurred several days ago.Weather
- Air Temp
- min 15F , max 35F at 4500'
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
The weather flipped today from our several day cold spell to a major inversion up at Hatcher Pass. It was balmy and calm with temps rising to 35 deg F at 4500' on top of Marmot. Calm winds and clear skies made for an enjoyable day.
Snowpack
See pit side wall photo below