Quick report
- Collapsing
- isolated
A couple of obs from a quick one-lap Jenny bowl tour. All limited to Jenny bowl, so I didn't get much of a feel for the snowpack, recent avalanches, etc. on different aspects and areas of the zone. I saw some recent crowns in the steep windloaded East aspect of the bowl, but no other signs of natural avalanches. The weekend storm snow had been blown into soft slabs in many locations, but the snow from the past couple of days had not seen a lot of wind tranport. As soon as I stepped off the Point 6 road at the top of Jenny bowl, I heard a small collapse. I descended about 150 feet and dug a pit in the open South facing low angle top of Jenny bowl below Point 6. I only dug down 80 cm to investigate the new persistent weak layer. I found the crust/storm slab interface at about 40 cm. Pit results were ECTP 25 at this interface. There were several crusts below this, but they did not produce pit results. I speculate that by skiing down to the pit, I collapsed the weak layer, which affected the test score. There were not visible facets above the crust, but presumably they were present given how readily the weak layer collapsed. Since the start of the storm that buried the persistent weak layer, it does not apper at that it has been warm enough for appreciable consolidation anywhere on the South aspect of Point 6. I felt comfortable skiing a conservative line in Jenny Bowl. I bet that I collapsed the weak layer in many places during my descent, but it wasn't reactive enough to avalanche or propagate a fracture in the sub-35 degree terrain.