Quick report
We set out to Aeneas Ridge to give the weather station a welfare check and monitor weak layers ahead of the next storm.
- We found surface hoar buried 1.5 feet deep on a sheltered north slope at 6400'.
- This layer produced an unstable results in our test pit.
- We found weak snow buried 1-2+ feet deep on several other slopes, though these layers yeilded mixed results.
- The current snow surface consists of faceted snow and surface hoar.
- We found wind textured snow along an alpine ridge, but saw minimal blowing snow and experienced no cracking.
- We were surprised to find a freezing rain crust from January at or near the surface on the East side of the ridge, evidently NE winds during the last week were strong enough to scour down to this layer.
We skied a short but steep southwest slope. We elected to dig one more pit before commiting to this line and skied one at a time.
No obvious signs of instability.Weather
- Air Temp
- 10
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- light
- Rain Elevation
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Stratus approached from the west in the afternoon. Light SW winds above 7000' with only a couple of gusts moving snow.
Snowpack
@ 6400, N
- HS = 240 cm
- ECTP 15 down 45 cm on buried surface hoar (4mm)
@ 6800, S
- HS = 280 cm
- ECTN 15 down 30 cm x 2 on facets (1mm)
- ECTN 25 down 45 cm x 2 on facets (1mm)
- ECTP 28 down 70 cm under freezing rain crust on faceting rounds
@ 7000, E
- HS = 180 cm
- ECTX
@ 7000, SW
- HS = 170 cm
- ECTX
Avalanche
Old sluffs and very thin slabs on steep upper-elevation slopes.