Beehive Basin

Today, snow was falling in the entire forecasting area. Our main objective was to investigate the snowpack stability in Beehive Basin and along the ridge of Bear Basin. Dave's last observation a week ago showed a concerning weak layer near the bottom and some near surface faceting. 

On our way up, we dug a pit half way up on the shoulder of Tyler's. Our ECT resutled in propagation on top of the near surface facets, which Dave had already observed a week ago. Above those facets, recent snowfall and wind formed a very soft slab. We dug another pit further up  on the east facing slope. In both pits, our test didn't show a reactive result on the persistent weak layer at the bottom. However, the weak layer is still there and might become a more concerning problem again with new load through more snow fall. 

In the lower part of Beehive Basin, we observed some cracking. Someone was testing a wind loaded pocket. Wind loaded slopes might be burried underneath recent snow fall and hard to identify.

The snowpack is still quite shallow, especially in areas that got blown off by the wind. While we were out in the field, it constantly snowed with S1 (1cm per hour) intensity.