Quick report
This is a PRO1 student snapshot from Day 2 of the AIARE motorized course here in Island Park After our group analyzed the snow yesterday we upped our mindset for today to Stepping Out (Cautiously). With the primary objective of Day 2 being the Timed Rescue Test, we had plenty of available time to work in pairs to dig 5 different SW to S facing aspects. These were done with no new snow forecasted or recorded. The morning stated with few clouds and the afternoon into evening the clouds rolled in just under overcast, most all agreed on a broken sky. These pits were craftsmanship practice dug down to the surface with all required testing completed, or a pathway to the next test taken if we wished to infer a more in-depth finding. In other snow related reporting, our study plot at 6460ft has a report of 61cm total snow at that elevation, and a foot penetration test of 25cm, so lets hope the wind stays light until that next deposit of white gold. REPORT: Most of the five test pits were able to see some propagation on a stubborn layer around 50-60cm below the surface. We are seeing many shapes and sizes of rounded or rounding grains in the snowpack. Only one of five test pits have a planar propagation during a shovel tilt test. Snow at this elevation (~8300ft) was between 120cm and 135cm. The photos are from two different aspect pits at or near the same elevation.