Quick report
Curiosity got the better of me today, and we just wanted to go look at the persistent weak layers. We targeted two locations, one that I've been monitoring since these layers were buried on 2/13, and a few locations on sunny slopes. This helps us track the change in the weaklayers over time (same location over and over again) and space (targeting new spots). Snowpack tests continued to show an unstable snowpack despite the recent lack of avalanche activity. Even on the sunny slopes, tests failed and propagated. Not exactly confidence inspiring. No cracking or collapsing noted
Weather
- Air Temp
- 45
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
Gorgeous sunny day with light winds and clear skies. It was a full notch warmer than the past several days.
Snowpack
This mission was all about digging snow profiles. We tarteded one slope, I've visited repeatedly through this cycle, and two new slopes. N: 6400ft, This is my 4th snow profile on this face since 2/13. We've watched the surface hoar grow, get buried, and become reactive. It's still there and still failing. Both the 2/13 surface hoar and the 2/7 facets failed in snowpack tests. While cut lengths on PSTs may be getting slightly longer, they are still significant. New locations: We wanted to target sunny slopes to see how these layers were acting with warm, wet snow at the surface. Both of these sights had been observed on 2/14, just after the layers were buried intact. In both locations, small and large column tests demonstrated sudden and propagating failures. However, all these results were on the facets just above the 2/7 crust. The 2/13 layer was mostly moist weak melt forms that did not fail in tests.