Quick report
Today we visited the Tunnel Snow station for routine maintenance. There were brief breaks in the clouds that allowed views of the alpine.
- Observed 6 slab avalanches. These all appeared to be soft storm slabs. Three of the avalanches were large (D2). See the avalanche tab for more information.
- The upper snowpack is right-side-up with no persistent weak layers in the top 150 cm.
- We can still easily locate facets above the early February Crust. They are rounding and the layer is 1 finger hard. Improvement, but still exist.
Weather
- Air Temp
- Below Freezing
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Mostly cloudy and cool temps. Wind speeds were moderate along upper ridgelines. Observed active wind transport throughout the day.
Snowpack
We dug two snow pits at mid-elevations. We had non-propagating results on a variety of layers in the upper snowpack. These layers consisted of graupel and a layer of decomposing stellar dendrites. These instabilities should be short-lived. See snow profiles for more information.
The early February Crust is buried roughly 150 cm in sheltered areas in this location. Facets are rounding and appear to be gaining strength.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2
- Type
- SS
- Count
- 2
- Aspect
- E
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 7000 ft
Observed 6 slab avalanches at upper elevations. These all appeared roughly a foot thick. We suspect these were all soft storm slabs by the looks of the debris and crown depths.