Snowpack

Wing Ridge

Sarah JakoberNorthern Wallowas
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Observation photo 1

Quick report

My partners and I found generally underwhelming conditions with a mix of crusts and wind effected snow on the surface. We saw very limited evidence of wind transport and felt some very small, soft wind slabs under our skis - these slabs were not cohesive enough to produce cracking. The most notable observation from our tour was how soft and crumbly the buried crusts are becoming.

Weather

Air Temp
30
Cloud Cover
overcast
Wind Loading
light
Recent Snowfall
0
Snow Avail For Transport
small smounts

Mild temperatures and cloudy skies throughout the day

Snowpack

On a NE aspect at 7400' I found an average of 130cm's of cold dry snow that had been textured by the wind. The first 10-15cm's was 4F hard and overlaid another 15cm's of very incohesive near surface facets. I did receive a sudden planar result at this interface, however, the slab above was likely not stiff enough to propagate a fracture in my ECT. Several feet of small to very small rounding facets mixed with a few thin decomposing crusts and graupel layers overlaid the 12/18 crust, which was only 30cm's above the ground and 8cm's thick in this location.