Quick report
- Aspect
- Northeast
- Red Flags
- Rapid Warming, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 3048 m
I took a long walk in the mountains today with the intent of analyzing the snowpack on aspects/elevations I would like to ski this season. Not being an avalanche professional myself this was mostly data gathering for those more experienced to analyze. I found a small berm in the moraine near the northeast apron of the Pfief with a matching aspect to dig my pit into. Unsurprisingly the snowpack here is some of the deepest in the range, which made the lack of change in snow of the deeper layers surprising.
Air Temp: 5C
Snowpack temps and hardness as follows. Temp data felt weird to me, but the thermometer appeared to be working correctly:
270cm: -4C / Fist
250cm: -10C / 4F
230cm: -9C / 1F
205cm: -8C / 1F
180cm: -8C / 1F
150cm (as far as I was willing to dig): -8C / Pencil
ECTX- giving it elbow grease dislodged a cohesive block off the 205cm weak layer.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Two obvious persistent weak layers were visible in my snow pit, the pit was not dug the full 9' to the ground. A dirty graupel filled layer formed a brown horizontal band at around 150cm from the ground. A second layer, visible by the contrast of new bright snow above, presented at 205cm. Images of the grains in this layer posted below.</p>