Observation: Public
Observation Details
Name:
Kyle HornorObservation Date:
January 4, 2022Submitted:
January 4, 2022Zone or Region:
Snoqualmie PassActivity:
Skiing/SnowboardingLocation:
Commonwealth-Big treesObserved Avalanches
Did you observe any avalanches?
YesAvalanche Type:
Soft SlabSize:
Size 1: Relatively harmless to peopleElevation:
LowerAspect:
NWComments:
4-5" crowns from small slabs in very steep terrain.Signs of Unstable Snow
Observations
Spent the day with an assessment mindset and had some great old growth skiing. Hand Shear tests on the way up commonwealth showed very reactive failure of the top 30cm of storm snow.
We dug in 2 locations looking for weak layers deeper in the snowpack. We dug a pit low down in commonwealth in a clearing. 3400' SW aspect. We found the solstice crust down 135cm. Found a grapple layer at 112cm down that was 4f hardness in between 1f snow. Got an ECTN 5 down 20cm and Ct2 RP at the same depth. Identified some mid-pack interfaces with a shear test, but didn't get any results on them.
Dug another pit at 4700' on a west aspect maybe 2 hrs later. Found pretty much the same snowpack structure. ECTN 2 down 10cm, ECTN 12 down 30cm. Identified a layer down 110cm that had 0.5cm rounding facets but didn't get results on it.
Overall: the top 30cm seemed super reactive but we didn't observe propagation at our locations. Did not find old interfaces producing propagating results in our locations.
Media
