Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Terrain: Traveled to the Kendall Lakes area via Kendall Knob. 3000-5000' E-S-SW aspects. We wanted to avoid very large avalanche paths like those we would have encountered if approaching the same area from Commonwealth Basin.

Avalanche: No new avalanches from today. We did observe several old debris piles from avalanche cycles 2/25-3/1.

Snowpack: 3-4" (~10cm) of new snow over a melt-freeze crust. In open areas above 4000' the crust was 2" (5cm) thick and generally supportable. The upper snowpack consisted of 12-15" (30-45cm) of unfrozen melt-forms above alternating layers of crusts and strong rounded grains.

Snow Profile: 1000hrs, 5000', S aspect, m=30 Kendall Lakes HS=420cm
Upper snowpack as described above. Snowpack tests revealed no meaningful results. Compression tests failed in the weak melt-forms ~ 8-10" (20-25cm) below the surface.
The mid-Jan layer was down 7.5' (230cm) in this location. 1-1.5mm facets (FCxr) were still visible above the crust. Snowpack test took extra hits but still failed suddenly.

Weather: Generally obscured to overcast skies with very short-lived breaks. Very light snowfall (S-1) most of the morning. Winds were light out of the SSW. Minimal wind transport of the the new snow.