Quick report
We toured up to the Sunburst weather station to repair the anemometer (it's back and data should be reliable since 1 p.m. this afternoon). We traveled quickly through the valley up to Taylor Pass, and spaced out as we traversed under multiple glide cracks. We dug one pit on the southerly slope just below the weather station and found a reactive layer of weak, faceted snow about 1.5' deep. We did not find any of the layers of buried surface hoar in this pit, but that test result was enough to keep us modest with our ski run choice. We saw a few fresh glide avalanches on Seattle Ridge, and many more glide cracks with exposed ground- clear signs that they are still on the move.
No signs of fresh avalanches, but we got an unstable test result just below the weather station and adjusted our run accordingly.Weather
- Air Temp
- Teens below zero in parking lot, low teens at weather station at 3800'.
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Cold and clear with light westerly winds. Strong enough temperature inversion to make it not too bad to be working on the weather station this afternoon. Very cold in the parking lot this morning.
Snowpack
Layers of concern: We got an unstable test result (ECTP19) at the bottom of a layer of facets about 1.5' deep at 3700'. We did not find any of the surface hoar layers in our pit, but being so close to the ridgeline, that may not be representative of more protected alpine terrain. Snowpack was around 10' (3m) deep where we dug. The other major concern is the ongoing glide avalanche cycle. We noticed a few fresh-looking glides on the south end of Seattle Ridge this morning.
Surfaces: Crust up to around 2500'. 6" soft faceted snow on top of an older wind-pressed surface above that.
Avalanche
Widespread glide avalanche activity continues.