Quick report
- Aspect
- North
- Elevation
- 1981 m
- Slope Angle
- 24°
Photo of near surface facets and faceted graupel from the surface of snowpit north facing 6980'
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>A couple of snow pits on north facing slopes showed total depth of 2.5' at 6980' (north, see pit below), and 4' of snow at 8340' on a northwest facing slope. Both pits showed signs of rounding facets at the ground with weak faceted snow on the surface. The PWL that is 5-10" off the ground was made up of rounding facets. Extended column test results in the snowpit at 6980' were ECTP17 @ 20" (51cm) off the ground which was a layer of facets buried midpack under a pencil hard melt-freeze crust.</p> <p>We saw signs of wind-drifted snow and wind-drifted snow avalanches. The avalanche we observed was most likely from a few days ago as the bed surface had filled back in. It failed on a steep north facing slope at 8200'. The avalanche was approximately 150' wide and ran 100' vertical and was approximately 12-16" deep at the crown face. It ran on weak faceted snow above a crust.</p>
Snow surface was faceted loose snow with some areas of stiff (pencil hard) wind-drifted snow above 8,000'
Faceted surface conditions Cutler Ridge
Wind-drifted snow on ridge above 8,000'