Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
• Several old wet loose avalanches in Shed 10 that ran last week on Jan. 15th. Most were D1-1.5 in size but the largest was D2 size and ran in Shed 10 W Feeder. • The surface of the snowpack has been faceting and is especially weak in locations where there is no surface crust. • There are a variety of surface crusts from the wind and sun over the past week in the upper snowpack. These all have weak facet layers around them as well. We were able to initiate some shooting cracks that ran 10-20’ in these layers. Not much of concern now but may become so if the weak layer(s) are preserved and a slab builds on top. • Dug a snow pit in the Second Slide avalanche path at 5500’ elevation on a south aspect, 38° slope. Snow depth was 31” and the upper half of the snowpack is basically a stack of facets and crusts. Extended Column Test yielded propagation under last week’s sun crust. This layer is only 2” down now. See pit profile for details. Minor shooting cracks in facets under some surface crusts.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
• Overcast skies in the morning changing to mostly clear by sundown. • Winds were calm on the Canyon floor and sometimes even so up on the ridge crests. Occasional light gusts from the SW above 5000’ • Daytime high air temperatures reached the high-20s °F on the Canyon floor and the teens °F above 6000’ elevation.