Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
- Collapsing
- specific
After playing around with collapses that I initially believed to be folded over alders underneath my feet, I was able to find an area where I could replicate the problem without alders under foot. A couple whumpfs were heard up to 40 feet away. In digging the pit the culprit of the collapsing identified itself as a 3cm band of snow sitting on top of the previous crust that has been building all December. I could not identify if the layer was BSH due to my pit being dug ok top of some water feature or if it was dry and light snow that fell on 12/26; maybe it’s a combination of the two. The crust itself was breakable in specific locations however it did not seem to propagate in the same way the old/new snow interface was. Localized collapsing beginning around 1600ft. Mostly small collapses underfoot but a couple of larger propagating whumpfs were heard.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 10
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- unknown
- Rain Elevation
- 0
- Recent Snowfall
- 6
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Storm rolled into Girdwood around 11:30 depositing a few cm of snow quickly before easing into a more moderate rate. Turnagain remained moderately snowing with light winds in the trees until I left around 5pm
Snowpack
Dug a pit at 1750ft in an opening in the trees. Was unable to run the tests I hoped due to only having a paracord to cut columns which was unable to cut through the icy layers. Also upon reaching the ground, it seems I chose to dig on top of a creek or small pool of water given the thick water ice underneath the snow. HS: 100cm 100-72cm: F (storm) 72-75cm: F (bsh or VERY dry, fluffy snow from 12/26) 75-72cm: K 72-65cm: F (facets) 65-45cm 1f>K 45-30cm:4F 30-29cm: K 29-0cm: 4F>2F