Snowpack

Carlton Ridge

Francis HortonBitterroot
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Observation photo 1Observation photo 2Observation photo 3Observation photo 4

Quick report

Avalanche hazards seem to be the two shallow cust layers and the facets sitting on the ground. Things seemed stable but arnt. Having eyes on the snow pack tells me that it's early season and the potential of a deep persistent slab problem developing later in the season is high.

Weather

Air Temp
28
Cloud Cover
broken
Wind Loading
light
Rain Elevation
5000
Recent Snowfall
0
Snow Avail For Transport
none

Broken cloud cover but the Sun crashed heating the snowpack. Light wind continued during the tour but no snow seemed available for transport.

Snowpack

We dug a pit at 8k feet on a north aspect. Found a couple different cust layers from rain/ thaw freeze cycles. No noticeable surface hoar but the facets on the ground still hanging on. We had an ECTN 13 @77cm on the interface between a rain/thaw crust, and an ECTN 23 @60cm between two different density slabs. The second break did not propagate during the test but when cleaning up the pit be we got the layer to react, I'll post a picture of the layer in question.