Andie's Prarie

I dug on a southwest-facing aspect at 5100' and a northwest-facing aspect at 5300'. In both locations, I found 110cm/3' of snow in both locations. There is 70cm of new snow from the early January snow and 30cm of old snow from November and December. There are a couple of melt-freeze crusts in the bottom of the snowpack. In between these crust layers is weak sugary snow. The snow crystals I looked at between these crust layers were not faceted. They did lack cohesion. Isolating an Extended Column Test was difficult because the crust is so near the ground. I did have Compression tests fail (sudden collapse) on the weak sugary snow after 30+ taps.

Based on the structure of the snowpack there is a Persistent Slab problem. These avalanches are stubborn but the potential exists. I was able to trench through these layers to the ground on my sled.