Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
- Collapsing
- specific
While setting a skin track up to Pk 9452 on the east slope around 8900' we heard a muffled whumpf. No subsidence or cracks were observed in the area. This was at tree line in an open, low angle area. Separately, near the summit of Pk 9452 at the top of the east slope, which is quite steep, we noticed a long crack running along the crest of the slope where it rolls over into 35+ degree terrain. After closer inspection, it appeared to be a series of several cracks, about 1cm wide which were observed to span at least 250' across the top of the obvious concavity. Stomping on this crack produced no results. After hearing the earlier mentioned whumpf, we dug a pit nearby at the indicated location to try to figure out what layer had reacted and how sensitive it might be. HS 171cm. We observed two distinct storm slabs on top of the snowpack 171-158 and 158-139 and myriad crust/facet sandwiches below. CT1 RP @159 CT15 SP @147 CT27 SC @75 ECTP 11 @147 Although the facet layer did not react in ECT, given the reactivity of new storm snow, and potential for step down avalanches we decided to perform a PST target this layer resulting in 95/100 END down 75. The bed surface for this layer failure is a thin pencil hard crust. Given the reactivity of the storm slab and potential for step downs (though unlikely given results) we stuck to our plan of avoiding avalanche terrain for the day. Soft new snow on top of firmer storm slab skied well and snow was still cold at 2pm. While setting a skin track up to Pk 9452 on the east slope around 8900' we heard a muffled whumpf. No subsidence or cracks were observed in the area. This was at tree line in an open, low angle area. Separately, near the summit of Pk 9452 at the top of the east slope, which is quite steep, we noticed a long crack running along the crest of the slope where it rolls over into 35+ degree terrain. After closer inspection, it appeared to be a series of several cracks, about 1cm wide which were observed to span at least 250' across the top of the obvious concavity. Stomping on this crack produced no results.
Snowpack
4-6" of cold soft surface snow on top of firmer storm slabs made for good skiing. Below the