Quick report
- Collapsing
- isolated
Limited obvious signs of instability while traveling. Poor structure on NW-N-NE-E, where a 1-2 foot thick slab rests on surface hoar and/or weak facets. Poor test scores and poor structure indicate avalanches are still possible; we chose to avoid avalanche terrain where that problem exists (shaded terrain in middle and upper elevations). We found supportable crusts/corn on solars, and felt comfortable skiing into the mid-30s in those locations.
Experienced two collapses while walking on a solar ridge line. Felt like it was a melt/freeze crust 2-3" under the surface, acting as a slab.Weather
- Cloud Cover
- obscured
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Warm and obscured/overcast. Felt like it was greenhousing this AM before noon. Thicker clouds rolled in, and the cloud deck climbed, which curbed the solar input, and temperatures cooled. Graupled on/off with minimal accumulation. Raining from Durrance and south on the way home.
Snowpack
Went looking for the reactivity and distribution of the 2/8 facets and 2/8 SH. Found on NW-N-NE on slopes above about 8500'.
2/16 (surface hoar) is down about 25cm. We didn't look enough to nail down distribution, but felt like its distribution is roughly similar to 2/8.
2/8 (buried near surface facets) is about 45cm deep. Found primarily on NW-N-NE above 8500'.
We dug on a ENE at 8800'. Both layers propagated in large column tests (ECTP moderate force X2).