Summit Creek AST 1

Nice day at Summit Creek. About -20 for much of the day with light winds from the north. Warm (relative) in the sun in areas sheltered from the wind. Great skiing in sheltered locations. No signs of instability. See snowpack for more info.

-27 on arrival at Log Cabin at 0930. Warmed to -24 at Summit creek and then up to a high of -20. Strong inversion with the upper Fraser weather station (aka summit station) about 10 degrees warmer. Light winds from the north at our location creating cold windchill but warm in the sun in sheltered areas. No precip.

Our group took a quick look at the snowpack on the way to our destination and at our destination. Surface hoar over all surfaces from highway to 1050 m (did not travel higher). Hand shears on south aspects at 900 m. yielded easy but not clean results on a sun/rain? crust about 20 cms down underlain by facets. Trees and rocks very faceted and lots of holes and treewell issues around vegetation. At our sheltered destination we took a look at an east and west aspect. Average snow depth on east aspect about 130. Average snow depth on west aspect about 185. Consistent (x5) compression test results on the east aspect in the moderate to hard range about 25 cms down on surface hoar but uneven shear (no pop or drop). On west aspect basically no results. Went to ground on east aspect and observed some basel facets/depth hoar but it was well bonded and not reactive. Ground was still wet in a few locations (mud on probe tips) and generally speaking the snowpack was lower than it normally is this time of year with less coverage and there are many creek depressions and small trees and rocks near surface. In areas previously exposed to wind there was boiler plate wind slab overlain by about 10 cms of new snow/near surface facets/surface hoar. No avalanches or signs of instability observed.