Cracked Ice

Found a thin snowpack with 20 inches total height at the road (1800') and 90 cms at 3000'.  Alders are very thick with the only reasonable way up following the summer trail.  No signs of instability were noted despite the thin snowpack.   New snowfall is beginning to form a shallow storm slab, but it is still insufficient to create an avalanche hazard in this location.  

Observed a snowpack with fair structure, fair strength, and low stress at 3000' NW aspect.  A layer of surface hoar that was buried on 11/26 is evident in the upper snowpack 6 inches below the surface, but is not yet a concern due to insufficient load (new snow).   Extended column tests produced easy -hard results with no propagation (see pit profile for more info).  Snow at the ground consisted of 4-6 mm meltforms with some faceting, but not as significant as what was observed in a thin location from Gully 1 on 11/27.