Quick report
There were three avalanche problems we were on the lookout for today: wet loose, wind slab, and persistent slab. We did find red flags for wet loose avalanches; numerous small point releases, as well as rollerballs and pinwheels. The new/recent snow at the surface on south aspects was damp by the end of the day and crusting over. We found no signs of wind slab instability other than stubborn cracking in small wind lip development. As for the persistent slab problem, we found largely stable conditions on an upper elevation, north facing slope.
We observed numerous small point release sluffs initiating from rock bands on east and south aspects. We also observed roller balls and pinwheels on south aspects that also initiated from rock bands.Weather
- Air Temp
- 10
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 12
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
The morning started off cold but quickly warmed as the sun rose. There were a few clouds in the sky throughout the day. The wind was calm all day and from the south at ridge line. By the afternoon, temperatures felt to be around 35-40F at upper elevations and close to 50F at lower elevations.
Snowpack
There is minimal and inconsistent snow coverage at lower elevations and no new/recent snow. At middle elevations, there was about 1-2" of new/recent snow. At upper elevations, we found close to 5" of new/recent snow. By the end of the day, most of the new/recent snow on south aspects had dampened and begun crusting over. On north aspects, the snow remained cool and dry.
We dug a snowpit on a north aspect at 8000'. The depth of this pit was 67" (170cm). We found a one finger (1F) hard slab overlaying a facet/crust/facet combo midpack. The facets above and below the crust were four finger (4F) hard. The crust itself was faceting out. Below these layers were rounding facets, an ice lense, and 4F - fist (F) hard basal facets at the ground. We performed an extended column test and did not get any results (ECTX). We performed a propagation saw test within the layer of facets above the crust and got propagation to the end at nearly the end of the cut (PST 95/100 End 93cm down).
We dug another quick pit on a south aspect at 7900'. The entirety of this pit save for the top 8" (20cm) or so was 1F hard with multiple melt freeze crusts distributed throughout. We performed a compression test and got no results (CTX).