Fraser Field Observation Day

As part of YAA's field training day we went up from the road at Fraser a little ways to dig a snow profile and observe the conditions along the way. There was a very hard and think melt/freeze crust. Snow on steeper slopes facing the sun was soft. Noticed a few small avalanches in the area, unsure of how old they were. Some were on NE facing slopes below cornices, others were on south facing slopes below rock faces. Weather was above warm and sunny with light/moderate winds from the N/NE.

In the location of our snow pits we observed a thick (approx. 35cm) hard melt/freeze crust. Below this crust there was a noticeable ice layer about 0.5-1cm thick with some soft faceted snow around it. Around 35cm deep we observed a resistant shear layer during a compression test. No reaction from an extended column test. No reaction from other layers during a deep tap test. The snow was generally fairly hard down to a faceted layer right above the ground.