Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
- Collapsing
- specific
We travelled by snowmbile to the Tenderfoot trailhead and ascended via lower angle terrain to an elevation of 7300' on a Northwest aspect. We felt 10 or more large collapses in the valley bottom. Buried Surface Hoar was noted in these locations, but not above about 6500' in the terrain where we travelled. We stayed off of and out from underneath any slopes greater than 30 degrees. The new snow was very light density and was not wind affected in the terrain where we skied.
Isolated cracking of top foot of the snow in skin track corners. We felt numerous collapses in the valley bottom and below 6500'. Surface Hoar was present in these locations.Weather
- Air Temp
- 23
- Cloud Cover
- scattered
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Recent Snowfall
- 30
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Wind was light and variable. There was no snow transport along ridgelines while we were out. Nice and cold temperatures in the 20's for the day. Partly cloudy skies with no new snow.
Snowpack
We dug a snowpit on a NW aspect at 6900 feet. There was a total snowdepth of 210 centimeters, or just over 6 feet of snow. There was a distinct layer of graupel snow 40 centimeters down from the Valentine's day storm. Just above that by a couple inches was the interface of the new storm starting on 2/16 (Monday). We got propagating results on this layer in an Extended Column Test (ECT): ECTP2,4.
The 2/8 interface was about 75 centimeters/30 inches from the surface. Just below this interface are rounding facets that showed repeated propagation in an ECT: ECTP17, ECTP21.