Little O'Malley Peak

Recent warm temperatures have promoted healing within weak faceted layers in the snowpack; however, these layers are still present. At lower elevations (below ~2,500’), we observed very wet, “mashed potato” snow with widespread trail breaking and postholing. The snowpack has shrunk considerably during the recent warming, exposing more bare ground and areas of icy, hard-packed snow on hiking trails.

A surface melt-freeze crust formed up to ~2,700’. While this crust is not currently concerning, it is something we will continue to monitor once it becomes buried and faceting develops around it.

We dug multiple snowpits in a location representative of a wind-loaded start zone and found a consistent structure of hard, firm snow overlying two concerning weak layers: facets in the upper snowpack and facets/depth hoar near the ground. Both layers show signs of strengthening and healing—such as rounding grains, smaller grain sizes, fragmentation, and increased hand hardness—but they are not fully healed. We did not observe any concerning test results.

Winds increased toward the end of our field day. While most available snow has been plastered onto leeward slopes during recent wind events, we did observe active snow transport. Fresh, shallow wind slabs are an additional concern at this time in Chugach State Park.

We observed one small whumpf in a heavily vegetated area.