Cracked Ice

Todays snowpack observations were focused on upper elevations around 5000 feet. A pit dug at 4800 feet showed fair to good structure and stability in the top 5 feet of recent storm snow. Weaker faceted snow underneath remains a concern, but we did not observe any significant signs of instability or worriesome pit test results. The long-duration wind event in December created a variety of surfaces, including faceted snow, sastrugi windslabs from 5cm to 60cm thick, and bare ground. There is high spatial variability regarding the type of layers you may encounter under our recent storm snow. These layers are now buried  3-5 feet deep in most areas, making quick assessments difficult. We continue to be suspect of upper elevation areas where thinner December windslabs on facets are buried under this recent snow load. These stiffer buried windslabs over weak snow may promote longer propagation necessary to produce large avalanches. This seems to be the case with a prominent natural avalanche on little girls that released yesterday( view here: NAC AFP » Observations) . Our pit location did not have the buried December windslab.

Weaker snow below 3000 feet that we have been talking about for a while should still be approached with caution. These lower elevations are consistently showing a much weaker snowpack with poor structure and have produced recent signs of instability.   

Below 2000 feet, the snowpack is locked up due to the recent rain and refreezing.