Lutak Zone

Overcast, snow, S-SE winds, 700m, N-aspect,-5C. 15cm of heavy new snow. Observed signs of instability, shooting cracks and whumphing. 45cm total from over the past 48hrs. The immediate failure was under the new snow on a 4cm crust with facets below that. Another weak interface was observed down 75cm. A boot penometer stomp was enough to produce a drainage wide settlement. Touchy conditions. The heavy new load with fresh windslab and advanced facets deeper in the pack could produce avalanches that step down in steep terrain. Originally posted by Jeff Muskowitz on alaskasnow.org