Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Toured from end of Icicle road up Black Pine to low angle treed terrain just to the east of 6600 ridge. Experienced no signs of instability on our tour in our ski out. Day started out with broken skies trending to obscured with increasing snow to around S3 by mid afternoon. Sled ride out was characterized by heavy snow and limited visibility. Air temps measured in the teens to lower 20s, dropping as the day went on.

Stopped at 5k for a break, at this location HS was 80cm.

Pit at 6200 with HS 149cm, N/NW aspect, 17 degree slope. Various density changes in upper snowpack from last week's snow that resulted in a CT8 SP down 40cm from snow surface. The lower third of the snowpack hosted two significant melt freeze crusts, one at 56cm (11/25?) and the other at 38cm (11/22?). Between these two crusts were 1F rounding facets, and below the lower crust was a 10cm thick layer of 4F rounding facets. We observed CT28 SC at the interface between the 38cm crust and the 4F rounding facets (this layer down 111cm for reference). We performed an ECT with no results (ECTX).

Surface conditions above 5500 feet where quite good on east and northeast aspects. Southerly slopes on ridges had a slight surface crust.