Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
The buried surface hoar from Jan 1st still exists on most aspects, but fortunately, it seems to be gaining strength and is proving less reactive with snowpack tests. We found another weak layer in the upper 6 inches of the snowpack, but it shouldn't be an issue until we get more precip. The primary avalanche problem to look out for is lingering stubborn wind slabs from our recent NW loading event. These slabs are generally shallow but are quite stiff (1F-P) thanks to the high wind speeds in the past days.
Travel conditions are variable. A thin crust exists on most W-S-SE aspects. E-NE aspects hold onto colder, faceting surfaces and offer better riding.
Weather
- Air Temp
- High 20's
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- light
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
The day started clear, but clouds started filtering in by late morning and winds notched up slightly. I observed a few intermittent snow showers during the early afternoon.
Snowpack
I went out to investigate the Jan 1st buried surface hoar(BSH) around Ahthanum Meadows. While I found this layer in most places I dug, it's trending stronger and less reactive than my last visit just over a week ago. This layer failed to propagate and produced ECTN scores from the shoulder in all areas I dug. The layer that yielded more notable results was the 1/10 layer in the upper 15 cm of the snowpack.
The 1/10 is very thin in this area (<1cm thick crust) and sits roughly 15 cm below the surface. This layer didn't produce propagating test results (yet) but produced SC results with CTs ( CT7, SC, 15 cm below surface). This layer won't be much of an issue until we get more of a slab over it.