North Okanagan

A mellow day in Vernon attending splitfest virtually. Snow was a mix of crust, wind effect and soft pow.

North East facing alpine/treeline slope, HST was ~210cm, with the first crust showing at 53cm down. The nasty December layer is sitting 100cm down and showing as 10mm solid ice with facets above and compact ice below. 3 column tests performed which showed decent pack bonding with resistant fractures around 53cm.

Did a compression test on a south aspect slope with a 23 degree angle at 1700 meters. CT24 RP, 24cm down Mixed snow conditions, some dry powder, wet heavy snow and frozen crust.

Dug a pit on north west aspect CTM 20 down 30cm, resistant plainer, decomposing fragments on 20 degree slope.

CTE 5 dn 30cm RP on a (dense) Sz.4 surface hoar @ 1850m NW aspect in open trees. SH Showed signs of bonding to the new snow but was not decomposing yet. With the new load of the last storm I would be very concerned with new snow instability for days to come. We also had some fun with a RB5 that was also RP. Both lower crusts from Nov were noted but seem well bonded and are showing signs of trending improvement.

South aspect At or below tree line Sheltered slope Incline = 15 degrees Elevation = 1850m Overcast with light snowfall Foot pen 50cm CTE 1 down 40cm sudden collapse Late Jan surface hoar CTE 4 down 46cm sudden collapse Easy to pull the block off (AST Level 1 course at Silver Star)