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No Wind-Shallow Snowpack

Published
Jan 5th, 2017 3:55 PM
jcinthemts
Northwest Inland
Details

Type

quick

Coordinates

49.860190, -115.026990

Quick Observation

Not quite enough snow for fun, so we had to make our own :) Track of sled could easily penetrate the entire weak, unconsolidated snowpack (50-100cm in most places) and hit obstacles below. Even with skis on, we were often breaking through old thin buried windslabs into sugary snow making for difficult travel. At 2250 m we found the upper snowpack was a combination of recent storm snow and thin windslabs (you could step right through them if you got off your skis or sled). The lower snowpack was a scary combination of weak sugary crystals and a crust near the ground. We got a couple of whumpfs on ridge type features where the snow was a little bit stiffer.