Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
I found shooting cracks on wind loaded slopes. There appeared to be signifcant wind loading on many of the north and northeast facing start zones. I also triggered some small dry loose avalanches on steep test slopes. I observed one natural larger dry loose from a distance (D1).
Weather
- Air Temp
- 23
- Cloud Cover
- obscured
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Recent Snowfall
- 20
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Near the summit I experienced stormy weather conditions with low visability. There was light to moderate snow throughout the day. At the summit winds were moderate withs strong gusts from the west/southwest. By 2pm cloud coverage began to break with some sunshine.
Snowpack
Overall I found about 8" unconsolidated cold snow. I found this amount near Paulina Lake as well as the summit zone. The summit had larger wind drifted snow features and deeper pockets of snow. On solar aspects I found a melt freeze crust about 1" thick. The mid snowpack is a mix of older settled storm snow and rounded grains. Down (about 27") is another crust layer with rounded snow below.
I dug on a NE aspect around 7,700ft. In this location I found some buried surface hoar and some graupel (both 2mm). At this location I performed an extended column test and I did recieve a propagation (ECTP #16 down 30cm). I think the surface hoar is spotty and not everywhere. I also dug on west, northwest, and southeast aspects and was not able to find this surface hoar layer or any other alarming test results. However, I was able to find the graupel in a few of my snow pits.
Overall, I observed a lot new snow and wind slabs continueing to build throughout the day.