Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

On Saturday we skinned up to Lake Colchuck and camped on the lake. We had just enough daylight to attempt a summit of Colchuck and ski the N facing glacier. Other parties reported good skiing conditions earlier that day on the Colchuck Glacier. We noticed the wind on the lake was out of the E which was the opposite of the forecast. While skinning up the moraine below the glacier we found several area with a very firm wind slab. The slab were sitting on facets. There were not a lot of shooting cracks nor signs of collapsing, but hand shears were failing on isolation so we bailed on the glacier. Sunday morning we dug a pit on the north end of Lake Colchuck. Pit location was on a NNE facing 27 degree slope at 5500ft. Total snow depth was 225cm. We found 10cm of new snow above a sun crust. Below the sun crust was progressively harder snow (4F>Pencil) to 68cms and then another crust with pencil hard below that to 100cms. CTH at 68cm crust Q2. All layers observed were rounding. Weather was partly cloudy with scattered snow showers and East winds. Skiing conditions were firm and/or breakable crust