Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

We skied a couple laps on mostly South-Southeast facing terrain from 6K back down to 2K. We did kick off some small dry loose slides in steeper terrain while ski cutting the slope, but no overt signs of gross instability, either natural or human triggered, noted while actually skiing or skinning.

We dug a quick test pit which yielded the following results:

Aspect: SE
Elevation: 5,850 ft
Slope Angle: 30 degrees

Here, we noted a HS of 155cm. The bottom of the snowpack from 40-60cm from the ground was pencil hard hardness, from 60-100 from the ground it was finger hardness, at 100cm from the ground there was a 1cm crust, from 100-125cm from the ground it was 4F hardness, and the upper 30cm of the snowpack was fist hardness. We did not evaluate any layers deeper than this.

We did two CT tests which yielded similar results.
CT7 @ 30cm down RP
CT14 @ 55cm down RP (on the 1 cm crust)
Unfortunately, we were in a hurry and I did not evaluate the grain type at these interfaces.