Observation: NWAC Forecaster

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Weather Summary

Light to moderate south to east winds. A few grains of snow were saltating in the breeze above treeline.

A couple old WL slides from the steep E-SE facing terrain above the typical but exposed uptrack on climbers R of Henry Creek of Jim Hills north slopes.

Snowpack Observations

Travel was fast over mostly supportable, thick crust at lower elevations. Lots of vegetation debris with branches and moss covered slopes in the woods.
Surface crusts became thinner and patchy on northerly aspects once above 5,000ft or so. Lots of wind affected surfaces with soft wind etching in some areas, to hard wind board in others. I experienced minimal to no shooting cracks, old wind slabs appeared well bonded.

A profile at 6,100ft on N aspect found some weaker grains under stiff wind packed snow. This layer comprising of soft decomposing fragments, rounded near surface facets and a few small flakes of surface hoar at the interface from a late March layer. Here, tilt tests produced clean shears, and compression tests produced sudden planer results with moderate force. Extended Column tests and Propagation saw tests both did not indicate propagation, however. Overall this layer appeared quite variable and broken up with extent of the recent wind affects.