Quick report
Our goal today was to enjoy fresh snow and look for natural avalanches in the Jewel Basin area.
- No signs of cracking or collapsing. Despite excellent visibility we did not see any natural avalanches (excluding the numerous and previously reported glide cracks). The 'East Runs' visible from Camp Misery looked affected by recent and small cornice breaking onto and rolling down the slope, but no obvious signs of propagation.
- On North, East and South aspects, most hand and shovel shear tests failed (Q1) on or just below the ice crust that was down approx. 14".
- We maintained a large margain of safety today. Wind lips along ridgelines were still reactive even with a wide berth.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Rain Elevation
- 4800
- Recent Snowfall
- 20
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
The morning was dominated with a cloud deck at 5800' accompanied by moderate south westerly winds and S-1 snow/graupel. By about 1300 the clouds lifted and the winds decreased to light providing ample views of the surrounding terrain.
Snowpack
6100', NE:
- HS=300cm
- ECTN13 down 20cm at new snow interface. Continued the test (and then some) with no other results to note.
- 20cm of new snow in a soft slab. The new snow interface was most obvious with signs of graupel starting the storm in multiple locations.