Tincan Trees

Quick tour to check on new snow at Turnagain Pass. There was about 6-8" new snow from the past 24 hours, and 2' total settled storm snow since this series of storms began early Friday, 4/4. Visibility was very limited so it was impossible to see if there was any recent activity. There is a thick layer of melt forms right under this new snow, which looks like it will be a concern as soon as we start seeing liquid water moving through the snowpack again. The 2/14 buried surface hoar layer was upright and 4' deep on a SW aspect at 2250'.

We had a scary situation where one skier in our group fell into a tree well and got stuck face down and head downhill. It took the rest of our group several minutes to realize something was wrong, throw our skins back on and run back up to him. Luckily, the skier was able to self-rescue by the time we had gotten to him, which was maybe 10-15 minutes later. It was an intense few minutes with a good outcome, but a very real reminder of how important it is to keep a close eye on partners, especially skiing or riding in trees during major storm events like this.

I dug one pit on a SW aspect at 2250'. This was right around the corner from where John and I dug on a N aspect two days ago. I wanted to see how far down the melt/freeze cycle had impacted the snowpack, and also wanted to see if that 2/14 surface hoar layer was still a concern on solar aspects. I found a thick layer of loose melt forms below this week's storm snow. It was unreactive in the pit, but it was not confidence-inspiring. It looks like something that will fall apart quickly as soon as we start seeing meltwater in the snowpack again.

The surface hoar layer was about 4' deep, still standing upright between two stiff layers in the snowpack. It didn't produce any test results, but that has proven to be misleading for this layer. I still don't trust it.