Quick report
- Aspect
- Northeast
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2591 m
- Slope Angle
- 26°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p> Really poor snow pack structure. That has proven it can and will produce human triggered avalanches. </p>
Today we had a White Pine Touring AIARE Rec Level 1 avalanche course out in the field. Within the group we worked on our departure checks. Including transceiver function checks. Verifying that everyone is carrying the necessary rescue equipment. A beacon, shovel and probe. That we are all up for the task of a day spent traveling in the mountains. That we would all travel together and remain within sight of one another. We all agreed we would alert each other, if we saw anything alarming observations. We worked on strategic shoveling practices. Ran our students through multiple companion rescue scenarios. Showed a few informal snowpack test which included a quick hand pit, a kick turn test, probing with ski pole for strong over weak layers. Demo'd a snow pit profile. Using their field books the students learned how to take snow pit profile observations. Site location, aspect, elevation, slope angle, Demo'd how to run through the process of layer I.D. Ran through hand hardness assessment. Showed the group a couple of snowpack tests including an informal STT, a CT and an ECT with a emphasis on tying these test results gathered in the pit back to the UAC bulletin's forecasted avalanche problem types. Overall a great day with a very engaged group of students.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p> Like Drew mentioned this morning. "These avalanches are insidious: They continue to occur with many tracks already on the slope, with no signs of cracking or collapsing, and each often triggered from a distance." ECT's today did not propagate across the column. No cracking or collapsing was noted in our tour today, yet these facets are still producing persistent 1 to 3 foot slab avalanches after several tracks have been put on to a slope.</p> <p> Stayed below the wind affected snow today. Never traveled above 8.5 feet. We also, stayed off slopes greater than 30 degrees, and were never connected to anything steep above us. </p>
8" or so of new snow over the past 24 hours. Nice powder sitting on top of a really poor structure.