Elephant's Hump

No avalanches or other signs of instabilty observed today using informal observations. Formal observations of the Jan 2nd and Dec 19th layers gave us mixed results. We dug several snow profiles today, with the first round at a shallow and cold location just above Red Lake, and the second round at a deeper and cold location close to the Elephant's Hump plateau. In the cold and shallow snow (less than 1m deep), the Jan 2nd and Dec 19th layers were quite weak and faceted, and produced unstable Compression Test results (Sudden Planar and Sudden Collapse), but 2 of 3 Extended Column Tests did not propagate. The propagating ECT was in a slightly deeper location and had more of a slab above the Jan 2nd and Dec 19th facets. At the other location later in the day (~1.5m deep), we used Deep Taps on the Dec 19th layer and got Sudden Collapse results, and a PST on Jan 2nd with 55/100 (end) results. Suprisingly, several Compression Tests did trigger down the full depth to Dec 19th with Sudden Collapse results. Although we tried ECTs, they did not reach deep enough to test propagation on either persisitent weak layer. Large surface hoar remained intact on the surface of cold slopes by our departure at 4pm. A thin crust was under that, but did not negatively impact ski quality.

Numerous unstable snowpack tests on Jan 2nd and Dec 19th layers