Quick report
The storm was coming in today with light snowfall, low clouds, and winds picking up near treeline. The winds were transporting snow quickly onto leeward aspects, with about a foot of soft snow on the surface to be blown around. On the snow surface there was a widespread layer of surface hoar and near surface facets, which will probably become a problematic weak layer if the storm tomorrow produces a lot of snowfall. We saw the recent glide avalanches on Seattle Ridge and another recent looking one on the north side of Tincan. We found a layer of buried surface hoar down 30" in our snowpit, but did not get any unstable results in our tests. Overall, the snowpack looked pretty right side up, but the buried surface hoar layer is concerning.
No obvious signs of instability other than the glide avalanches that had recently released in the area.Weather
- Air Temp
- high 20s
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Rain Elevation
- 100
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Light snow on and off with little accumulation and overcast skies. Winds picked up into the teens near the treeline and were transporting snow quickly.
Snowpack
We dug some pits at about 2200' on a north aspect. The snowpack was about 5' (150 cm) deep and generally right side up with about a foot of soft snow on the surface. We found a layer of buried surface hoar down 30" (75 cm) underneath a melt freeze crust which was 18" (45 cm) deep. None of our tests produced unstable results on the buried surface hoar layer (ECTN down 30cm, CT N down 30cm). The lack of unstable test results might be due to the thick crust in the snowpack at this location.