Observation: Knob Mountain

We toured on Knob Mountain and in Cow Fork from elevations of 7,000 to 10,000 feet, traveling predominantly on north, east, and west facing slopes. New snow seemed well bonded to the old snow from the Christmas week storms but we did get clean fractures in hand shear tests on the interface between the Christmas storm snow and the older snow on a thin crust layer in several quick test pits. We dug a pit to the ground at 9,700 feet on a NW aspect. We were able to get a failure on this layer (40cm down) in an ECT on the 7th tap from the shoulder but no propagation. Basal facets were present at this location but have seemed to gain strength and were not reactive in tests. Snow depth at this location was 105 cm but we think it was uncharacteristically shallow for the area we were in. Several pole probes in the area revealed snow depths of 125-130 cm. See photo of snow pit below.

We didn't see any signs of natural avalanche activity from this storm, although poor visibility inhibited our ability to get a good look at some of the steeper east and northeast facing slopes in Cow Fork.

Seemed like about 8-10 inches of fresh powder in the areas we traveled. New snow seemed well bonded to the older snow in areas we traveled that were not affected by the wind. We did note some wind affect on east facing slopes but it did not seem to be as severe as we expected.