Quick report
- Aspect
- Northwest
- Red Flags
- Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2774 m
- Slope Angle
- 29°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Basal facets seemed larger, less rounded, and more reactive than Greg and I have seen in BCC/LCC recently. Avalanche threat still in the 'unlikely but damaging' regime, so we milked conservative lines and avoided starting zone entrance to Yellow Jacket. Noted single savvy skier sneaking Toots-ward into Alexander basin, uneventfully.</p>
Same basic plan--right-side-up slab topped with powder and sitting on facets--as seen in other pits this week. Easier to trigger weak layer in our extended column tests, however, than we've noted elsewhere...presumably a function of both the shallower snowpack and looser/larger facets.
Most interesting finding? Basal facets from a pit only 300' higher at the top of Yellow Jacket were exquisitely striated with 5-6mm cupped forms and no sign of rounding. This location had a thin snowpack of only 40cm, ripe for facet-forming temperature gradients greater than 1°C/10cm. Using some fuzzy mathand a 7-day temperature chart from a similar elevation we can see the difference between air temps (eye-ball average of 10°F or -12°C) and ground temps (approximately 0°C) could create a sufficient gradient (3°C/10cm) for facet formation. In short, a very visible reminder that opposing processes can be at work in close proximity.
Snowpack
Low density powder in the protected Yellow Jacket Gulch up through the top of the tree run, with wind crusts and cornices marking the Alexander ridge line. Crust sandwich noted on low elevation SW aspect, but skiing in the wooded exit gully featured soft snow and good coverage.