Quick report
Overall, the snowpack on Blewett is shallow and will need a lot more snow to make travel on skis and sled easier. But we found stable conditions and some fun "dust on crust" skiing today. There are weak layers we identified within the snowpack that are yet to be tested by a significant load. We stayed on more shaded aspects today, but I suspect the snow on solar aspects got a bit warm from strong sun throughout the day.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 20
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 5
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
A clear and sunny day! Temperatures remained below freezing during our time in the field. The wind was calm and from the west.
Snowpack
Snow coverage is low on Blewett Pass and made for difficult skinning conditions at low and middle elevations. A quick hand pit on an east aspect at 4900 ft showed a depth of around 15in/40cm. The snowpack did not increase in depth significantly on similar aspects as we gained elevation. We found surface hoar on open slopes at middle elevations and evidence of previous roller ball activity.
We dug a full pit on an east aspect at 5800 ft. The depth of this pit was 20in/52cm. Ski penetration was 4in/10cm and boot penetration was 6in/16cm. The surface was small surface hoar grains. We found 3in/8cm of wind transported snow and 2in/5cm of recent snow at the surface. This snow was soft and unconsolidated. It overlayed a fist (F) hard layer of (near surface) facets that had formed before the layer was buried. We then found a series of melt freeze crusts and near crust facets. Mid-pack, we found a four-finger (4F) hard layer of small faceting rounds. Near the ground, we found another melt freeze crust with facets below. This layer of facets was still holding onto a bit of moisture either from the warm ground or from rain over the weekend. We performed a number of tests and did not get any red flag results but got results in a variety of layers:
Easy shovel tilt at the interface of wind transported and recent snow
Easy break at the interface of wind transported and recent snow in a compression test (CT2, BRK)
Moderate break on top of the near surface facets in a compression test (CT12, BRK)
Moderate, non-propagating extended column test results in the facets at the ground (ECTN13)
Hard, non-propagating extended column test results in a layer of near crust facets below the upper crust (ECTN28)
No results in a propagation saw test in the layer of near surface facets (PSTX)