Observation: Garden City Bowls

Our AIARE 1 class traveled to Garden City bowls today where we found low density powder and mild weather. In our snowpit, we had a Sudden Collapse in our Compression Test at 15 taps on the PWL, but we had no results in our Extended Column Test. The hand hardness of the weak layer in this location was 4F+ and was 22cms thick. Above the weak layer, we found a right-side-up snowpack with low density snow on top.

The new snow in the bowl was very low density powder. While traveling on a South facing slope for our exit, the snow was a bit more dense but still great to ski. Every few turns, a crust below the new sow was felt on this South facing aspect.