Observation: NWAC Forecaster

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Weather Summary

Temperatures dropped in the morning from 27F at 6am to 20F noon and onwards at HM Wx station. Scattered snow fell throughout the day, with 4cm at 0900 and another 4cm by 1500hrs. Light to moderate am gusts redistributed the new snow in the vicinity of ridgelines at around 5200ft and up.

Avalanche Observation Comments:

The only signs of avalanches were small loose dry skier triggered avalanches in terrain >38 degrees in the top 5cm of snow.

Snowpack Observations

The snowpack averaged around 100cm in most areas that we travelled. The very stout November AR crust started about 30cm down, well frozen into dry knife-hard for the top 20+cm before slowly dissipating to pencil-hard and moist by the time it reached the ground. Our day started with about 4cm of light, dry storm snow on the surface and gained a few more cm throughout the day. In areas below 4600ft the layer beneath the fresh storm snow was moist, 1 finger, all the way down to the November AR crust. Above that elevation, we found a thin rain crust beneath our storm snow, with another dry layer separating that from the November AR crust (see pit photo). Moderate gusts in the morning led us to discover small areas of redistributed storm snow along ridgelines and near features. These were mainly above 5200ft. In some spots the snow was stripped down to the thin crust, whereas in a few areas we found deposits up to 10, infrequently 20cm. These small slabs were unreactive. Stomping on one very small wind lip produced no cracking. Result in snow pit: CT26 PC 25cm down on preserved stellar layer. Skiing above 5000ft was surprisingly pleasant. The underlying rain crust was edgeable but not very noticeable, thanks to the slightly deeper amounts of new snow at upper elevations.