Silver Sands

<p>There is significant wind transport of snow in the Silver Sands area after the major wind event of Jan 1. Exposed ridges are bare, lee slopes are corniced and drifted, and snow is wind affected even in fairly dense trees. The day was warm and got warmer, it started raining around 3 pm below 1400m elevation, snowing above. The surface was old powder down to about 20 cm sitting on an old crust. Surface snow became wet in PM at all elevations. We dug a Profile pit in a cut block at 1400m on a NE Aspect. Total height of snow was 120 cm. There were crusts at 20, 57, and 105 cm down. Large (9 mm) Surface Hoar at the 20 cm layer, but well bonded to adjacent snow. Barely any reaction on that layer (CTH26 BRK dn 20 x2) and no reaction on the 57 cm crust (DTN dn 57 x2) Significant Faceting above and below the Ice layer 105 cm down (FC 3mm) So all-in-all, a typical shallow midwinter Northern Rockies snowpack. Temp gradient high in the top 60 cm, from air temp of +1.6 to -7 at 40 cm then warming to -3 at 100 cm. Snowpack is mainly right side up, and we saw no sign of natural or human triggered avalanches, but many start zones now have wind slabs and/or cornices on the N and E aspect slopes. </p>