Quick report
We found 4-6" of soft settled snow on non-wind-affected shady slopes above 8000'. Below that, even on northerlies, there is often a surface melt-freeze crust from warm ambient air temperatures the last few days. We did not see or feel any windslabs or dry loose sluffing in 35 degree NE terrain we skied.
We targeted the Jan facets in locations that had unstable pit results in early February and found mixed results today. 2/3 PST scores indicated instability, while we got no results on this Jan layer on an ECT (matching Karen's ECTN findings from last Weds). This is the first recent test result that indicates that it is unlikely but not impossible to trigger a persistent slab in isolated mid-elevation locations near Anthony Lakes.
None
Weather
- Air Temp
- 33.5
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
A thin overcast cloud ceiling progressively thinned before popping clear overhead at 11:45. By 2:30, overcast returned followed by fog. Temps reached a recorded 33.5F before dropping to 31. Winds were light out of the W.
Snowpack
At 7250' E in the shade, I found the 3cm thick 2/23 rain crust under 3cm of soft snow. At 7900' NE, the 2/23 crust was a full 5cm thick and Pencil to Knife hard. By 8000' and up to 8250', it was a pair of thin sandwiched melt-freeze crusts (see photo). This matches Karen's observation from 8000' W on Weds 2/26 and may be a layer of concern once we get a slab above it.
At 8560' ENE, the upper snowpack was still cold with T10:-2.1 and T20:-2.4C. 1cm MFcr and old windslabs below, could not locate 2/23 crust in top 18".
In one pit at 7730' NW with HS192, we found the Jan facets down 75cm. ECTX and PST 46/100 (end) x2. Under a loupe, facets are so rounded that it is hard to call them facets with only a few formerly sharp edges. This is in a shallow (HS 192) steep area Near Treeline, probably on a rock slab. See video.
We also dug on 7530' NW above Hoffer Lake, near the location of a mid-February human triggered wind slab that did not step down to the Jan facets. With a 50% deeper snowpack of HS290 and the Jan facets down 90cm, our result of PST 95/100 did not indicate reactivity.