AST 2 Observations, Dezaiko Lodge

Hyland Backcountry , Thursday 12th December, 2024 5:15PM

The past 2 days at Dezaiko Lodge during an AST 2 course have been cloudy, -2c and generally light SW winds. There is 20cm of old storm snow over the Dec 6 raincrust, which appears to be bonding well in 2 test profiles at treeline with no results in an Extended Column Test, and very hard results in a Compression Test. There appears to be 130-150cm snowpack depth at treeline, and a wet snowpack with a weak temperature gradient throughout. In the Alpine, there is some wind affect, and isolated thin windslabs on N aspects, but little hazard, Glide cracks are numerous, and we observed a fresh failure, to Size 2 at 1700m on a SE aspect today. No other signs of instability.