Beehive Basin

The snowpack has tripled in depth over the last 10 days and that's the main problem - It's a rapid change. It's a rapid amount of weight, thus a lot of stress added to layers of old (generally faceted) snow near the ground. The avalnache yesterday on the Beehive side combined with several big collapses we experienced today confirm this. Extended Column Tests did not always show this instability which may be due to variability in the weak layer, but I don't trust it.

Looking ahead, there's hope! If snowfall can keep coming just sort of regularly, the weak layer of October snow and late november snow can heal. This weak layer is quite bad on northerly facing slopes and will be a problem for much longer. 

 

Wow! Snow depths have increased a lot. We consistently found 3 feet of snow in many places. What was most variable was the weak, old snow at the ground from October and late November. 

• The shadiest, more northerly facing slopes held October snow that became very faceted during dry weather and clear nights in November
• Early snow melted off of low elevation slopes
• Snow on slopes recieving. more sun in November melted some and is mostly a refrozen ice mass with some facets on top