Peak 3

Rainline had crept up to 2700' feet over the weekend. There was an ice surface crust up to 2700'. The rain had melted away much of the snow at lower elevations. The snow that was left caused a lot of post holing and was wet. At higher elevations snow surfaces were firm and slick with a thin layer of fresh snow that caused some glopping on our skins. We both needed to put on ski crampons at higher elevations to prevent sliding. Snow was deepest and firmest in the middle of the Peak 3 gully where the wind slab was supportable. Outside of the main gully- the snow was a punchy breakable wind layer over facets. We dug two snow pits and found propagating test results (ECTP11 and ECTP22) on the layer of facets beneath the wind slab, roughly 1' down from the snow surface. We targeted shallower snow pack at the edge of the gully at higher elevations to try to target where someone might trigger an avalanche in the Chugach State Park. We found depth hoar at the base of the snowpack and will be monitoring the depth hoar layer. To avoid the weak layer, you can stay out of avalanche terrain. If you do decide to ski avalanche terrain, we recommend to have good eyes on your partner and travel one at a time.