Quick report
This days objective was to get into the Northern Whtiefish Range and get an eye on the distribution of the buried weak layer, surface snow condition and total depth of snow.
- We found the 12/7 crust to be widely distrubted and robust (3-4 inches thick) on all aspects and up to our high point of 7200 ft. It was generally underneath 40 cm of dense faceting snow. We did notice it to be slightly thinner below 6,000 ft.
- We did not find any buried surface hoar.
- The inversion has affected the surface snow above 6,500 ft. There is a weak, breakable crust on SW-S aspects. While being of notice on the way up, it was of no concern during our descent. North, shaded, aspects are recycled powder without a crust.
- The snowpack is generally stable and right side up. Total depth was 100-130 cm above 6,000 ft.
Weather
- Air Temp
- below freezing
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- na
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Stratus sandwich. Cold (20's) below 6,000 ft. Above that it was warmer, still below freezing though.
Snowpack
- ECTX on SW face 7,000 ft.
- ECTN24 on N face 7,200 ft.
- 30-45 cm of 4F hard snow (faceting in places) atop the 12/7 crust. 2 cm layer of small facets at the interface that are slightly softer than the slab above (the ECTN).
- 12/7 crust consists of 1 cm, knife-hard ice layer with 10-20 cm of 1F+ to P hard Melt Freeze grains below. Can poke on finger into this in places but we didn't find any defined weak layer.
- On N, another thin ice layer forms the bottom of the refrozen snow.
- Below that, we found 20-30 cm of 1 finger hard, moist, small facet. Didn't get out the scope, but suspect they are rounding.
- The 11/7 crust is present in places but disintegrating.
- Moist to wet, 3mm melt-freeze grains at ground.
Avalanche
none observed.