Quick report
Today, Micah and I traveled into the north end of the West Cabinet Mountains forecast zone to conduct a welfare check at the Black Mountain Snow Study/Camera Plot. Once maintenance was completed, we went for a short ski tour to continue documenting snowpack conditions and recent changes near the surface.
- In some locations, the surface crust that formed during warmer weather last week is still somewhat supportive, but in most locations we traveled, this crust has become thin and brittle. This is the results of prolonged high pressure with clear and cold, days and nights.
- We observed a relatively shallow snowpack that has faceted throughout and will continue to do so further with more of the same weather ahead.
- Lots of surface hoar growth occuring in many locations with feather sizes generally ranging from 6 to 10mm in size. Largest feathers observed were found near 4500 feet elevation.
- More snowpack details below in the Snowpack Tab.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 16 degrees (Measured at 5900' @ 2:00pm)
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- n/a
- Recent Snowfall
- none
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
Like the past few days, the stratus deck has been higher than usual and was hovering somewhere above 6000 feet. Our days highpoint was around 5900 feet today, so we did not break through and can not confirm where the stratus elevation landed today. Below the deck, temps were cold and winds were calm.
Snowpack
After completing maintenace, we traveled toward the lookout tower and dug a pit nearby. We selected a north facing site at 5950 feet elevation.
- The surface crust was thin and decomposing (faceting), capped with 8mm surface hoar feathers.
- Overall snow depth was thinner here than what we've seen in other parts of the region, especially for this aspect and elevation. HS=112cm (44 inches)
- Consequentially, the thin snowpack here is not offering much insulation to the recent cold temperatures, and we observed a snowpack that is largely faceted throughout
- Faceting is causing the entire snowpack to slowly lose cohesion, changing the slab properties, and despite the presence of old crust layers surrounded by facets, an extended column test yeilded no result (ECTX).
- A compression test resulted in a sudden collapse after hard force on a layer of large facets below the knife hard December 15 interface (AR Crust). The failure was iregular and non-planar. (CT23 SC @ 34cm *~30 inches below the surface)
Avalanche
none observed