Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
My goals for today were to narrow down the distribution and sensitivity of faceting crystals above and below the 1/1 crust. Shortest answer: the crust is everywhere, the facets are not. The facets around the crust are largely unreactive in the San Joaquin Ridge area. I found the 1/1 crust at all elevations and aspects today.
I found cracking in fresh wind slabs on solar aspects near and above treeline.Weather
- Air Temp
- 28
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- light
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Light winds blew out of the northeast at my back all day, transporting the remnants of yesterday's snow onto southerly aspects. Much of the snow available for transport has loaded southerlies near and above treeline.
Snowpack
Recent northerly winds are scouring northwest-north-northeast aspects at ridgetop. As you move down slope on these aspects (NW-N-NE), old, stubborn wind slabs exist near the surface. The wind-blown snow is landing on southerly aspects near and above treeline, building reactive, fresh wind slabs. I found many of our solar aspects building new wind slabs on the 1/1 crust, after last week's dominating southwest winds excavated much of the snow down to this interface.
I focused primarily on the 1/1 crust today and dug many holes near and above treeline.
- I found 1/1 to be 40-115cm deep. Southerly aspects had the crust closer to the surface.
- Near treeline and in places less windwacked, the crust was buried ~100cm deep, with a right-side-up structure above.
- I did not get propagating results on this crust anywhere. For the most part, this crust was capped with rounds, buried around a meter, and was entirely unreactive. (ECTX x 8)
- The exception to this: North-facing start zones, where the crust exists closer to the surface. I found developing facets on a north-facing aspect at 10,017' with a 60cm 1F wind-packed slab above. I initiated failure on these facets, but again, found no propagation. (CT21SC)