Sierra Madre

Snow depth in this area was 265cm deep. Test pit dug 140cm. There’s around 30-40 cm of new snow from the most recent storm. 3 layers of concern stand out; a layered in the upper 40-50cm has new snow plus areas of wind loaded snow sitting on top of near surface facets. The next layer is the Feb 10 layer which has a heavy slab, primarily made up of rounded, cohesive grains, sitting on top of a MFcr with rounding facets directly below. The final layer of concern is another, much deeper MFcr, again with faceted crystals directly below. No reaction, on this aspect to an Extended Column Test (ECTX) but there was reaction on the Propagation Saw Test(PST48/100END on the Feb 10 layer), meaning we can’t rule out a persistent slab avalanche problem yet.

Snow depth in this area was around 200cm. Test pit was dug to 140cm. There were 3 layers of concern, our Feb 10 layer being the most concerning. This is a MFcr about 1 cm thick with rounding facets directly below. A bit further up is a layer of buried surface hoar. While not super reactive to an ECT or PST, there was a bit of reaction on the shovel shear. The last layer of concern is a MFcr about 10 cm down with near surface facets directly below. As we get more snow, this layer will likely be reactive. ECTX, PST50/130END@119cm.

wind loading: intense

Our total snow depth in this area was 140cm. We observed 2 main layers of concern, our “Tuesday” layer and our Christmas Crust. The Tuesday layer being the more reactive of the 2 with an ECTP15@90cm and a PST38/120END @90cm and also a CTE@95cm SP This persistent weak layer is reactive. There were multiple storm slab and cornice fall avalanches in the area

Our test location was on a NE Aspect at 10,516’. The total snow depth in this area was 210-220 cm. Our test pit depth was dug to 141cm, ending on top of the Christmas Crust. Our test results, fortunately yielded minimal results with an ECTX and a PST90/120 END Our Tuesday layer remains in the snow pack about 1/3 the way down and still consists of a thin sun crust followed by faceted snow, about .5-1cm thick. This remains our area of concern.

We observed a weak layer under the new snow we received in the last week or so. The "Christmas crust" is still visible about 120 cm below the surface. Even though we did not get a reaction on the Christmas crust, there is still a possibility for an avalanche to step down to that layer. We performed an ECT and PST stability tests on a NE aspect at approximately 10,450 feet in elevation. We received an ECTP 14 and PST 18/120End both under our Tuesday storm slab layer approximately 55cm below the snows surface.

Snowpack depth in this location was 185cm and our test pit dug to 150cm. There’s approximately 2 ft of new snow sitting on top of the previous warming trend’s sun crust with facets directly below. There’s also a small rain crust about 40cm down where some test reaction was found also. Our Extended Column Test was very reactive on that rain crust with a score of ECTP4@137cm up and our Propagation Saw Test was also very reactive with a score of PST31/120END@123cm up.

Snowpack depth in this location was 115cm. We performed 2 instabilities, an Extended Column Test(ECTX), that yielded no results other than some progressive cracking and we performed a Propagation Saw Test(PST 34/100 END), just below the Christmas crust. Water saturated snow was observed just above the Christmas crust, as well.

North aspect, 10,862’. Snowpit depth was 135 cm with 2 layers of concern. First one from wind loading @ 109cm up, and the other being that Christmas crust about midway through the snowpack. Also some rounding Depth Hoar is still found near the ground. ECTX, PST 65/120 END@53cm, PST 37/120 END@109cm.

Snowpack measures 115cm at location. Has 3 distinct layers of concern. A Melt freeze crust about 5-10cm from the surface, a thin layer of facets@70cm and our Christmas layer about halfway down in the snowpack. Overall there was little reaction to our instability tests, some progressive cracking.

On north Battle Creek in the Sierra MadresSnow height is 115 cm total to the ground east facing aspect extended column test we didn't have a propagation or failure. ectx. 0degrees Celsius. The persistent weak layer that we had under our Christmas ice layer has collapsed and shows no sign of instability at this time. We did an extended column test which yielded no failure or propagation of the pit

Snow depth in this pit measured 125cm. A prominent ice layer with faceted snow, directly under it, is found about half to 2/3 of the way down the snowpack. We perform an extended column test with a score of ECTP23@70cm on a less prominent layer, that was not obvious during our layer finding. We also performed a propagation saw test on the facets directly below the ice layer with a score of PST58/120 end@52cm. Soft faceted snow is still found at ground level but did not appear to be reactive. A lot of “whumphing” was felt and heard

Snow pack 135cm we have a persistent slab at 65cm ECTP7 at 65cm and PST28/120end. The persistent slab is very unstable fasets under the ice layer at65 cm making the persistent slab very reactive. Anything 30degrees and steeper is very dangerous.

The extended column test resulted in ECTP 16 at 31 cm below the top. The propagation saw test resulted in pst40/120sf at 31 cm below the top. Experienced a weak layer above and below ice layer about 31 cm down