Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
We enjoyed a relatively quite day. The previous human triggered wind slabs were visible from around Bagley basin, and some small wet point releases from Sundays sunshine. High clouds seemed to have kept warming in check today with minimal new activity observed in our area. Small surface hoar formed Sunday night. Old wind lips would crack into blocks under a person's weight, under than that roller balls, point releases and small wet avalanches from Sundays intense sunshine.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 30
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Recent Snowfall
- 15-30
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
A mixture of variably thick mid and high clouds with more intense peaks of sunshine in between throughout the day. It was very nice compared to the gloom back out across the lowlands. Winds were light, visibility was great with deep looks into the North Cascades.
Snowpack
I found a wide range of new snow depths over last weeks crust layers, from as little as 3 inches to a couple of feet in wind loaded areas. Plenty of evidence of cross loading in rolly terrain near Artist Point with wind lips stubborn to slide on test slopes. Quick hand shear test revealed a wide range of results from easy shears in wind slabs above the 1/10 interface crust to moderate RP failures. Compression test CTM13 down 15 cm(new snow layer above the 1/10 interface. ECT yielded no result ECTX. For the most part, snow seems to be well bonded outside wind loaded terrain features . The Jan 6-9 crust layers are actually a complex of two different crusts, thinner top, 4 F hardness snow in between with a thicker crust below. New years interface produced CTH22 with no result in ECT. Overall the snowpack is right side up with F hardness at the surface increasing to 1F/P 2 feet below the surface. High clouds seemed to have kept wet snow problems in check today. Some evidence of warming Sunday. A thin crust was present on solar aspects below 4500 feet. Dry snow with small surface hoar on most aspects.
Avalanche
Several human triggered avalanches visible that occured Sunday. These were likely wind slabs with poor bond to the underlying crust. Small wet avalanches and point releases from Sundays solar input. About 1 pm I herd a large noise in the direction of Herman that sounded like a cornice fall.