Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
Cracking was limited to isolated wind-loaded slopes with dense slabby snow on top of unconsolidated powder. I did not observe other signs of instability, but hand pits and other tests produced unstable results. (See snowpack).
Weather
- Air Temp
- low 20s
- Cloud Cover
- scattered
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Recent Snowfall
- ~30
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Fairly mild weather after the passing storm that deposited about a foot of new snow. Seasonal temperatures and light winds. Clouds begin to move in with light snow in the afternoon.
Snowpack
My observations were focused on the depth and reactivity of our recently deposited storm snow. I observed a lot of variation in snow depths, ranging from about 6 inches to 2+ feet, with a few isolated areas scoured down to old crusts. Storm snow total accumulation was likely close to a foot, but it was impossible to measure accurately due to the variation in depth. Very few signs of instability were observed while travelling, but I did get an unsupported wind-loaded slope to produce fractures up to a couple of meters long.
The storm snow was top-heavy with denser snow on the surface and very light snow at the new snow/old snow interface. Numerous hand pits I dug on the way up all failed on isolation just above the old snow surfaces within buried light-density storm snow. Pit tests at 4100 feet also produced unstable results with very low scores. Test results included (ECTP1), (ECTP5), and (PST15/100), down 55cm just above the old/new interface. With such low results, it is interesting that there were not more signs of instability in the area. The takeaway: Based on test results, there is an indication that a person could trigger a 1-2 foot deep storm slab in specific wind-loaded areas even though signs of instability may be limited or absent.