Observation: NWAC Forecaster

Advanced Information

Weather Summary

Patchy low clouds when we stepped out of the car, but we had some filtered views of the peaks. As we ascended we got above the bulk of the clouds and had nice views around the valley. When we got back to the car around noon, we were socked in again with no views of the peaks. It was pretty warm out there.

Avalanche Observation Comments:

There were lots of tree bombs and snow shedding from rocks observed. Some of these would grab a bit of additional snow as they moved downhill but would be hard-pressed to call them an avalanche. The upper Kendall area had some older looking debris that was buried. I couldn't spot a crown anywhere. It could have just been shedding off the cliffs during the height of the storm.

Snowpack Observations

Went searching for buried surface hoar (12/8) again and wasn't as impressed with what I found. Dug at the top of the Kendall Trees in the meadows and as has been the story at Snoqualmie Pass, a layer consistently showed up with shovel shear tests, compression tests, and extended column tests, but it did not propagate (ECTN24). Looking at the grains, I was hard-pressed to find full feathers, but maybe some fragments here and there. [Pit location: W 4820' HS = 131cm]

The snow was much heavier and more consolidated than 24 hours earlier when I was out in the Alpental Valley. Ski pen on Saturday felt as if it was nearly crotch deep, while on Sunday it was only about 8". Hand shears and all other tests had snow coming off as a cohesive block now as opposed to just breaking apart all light and fluffy on Saturday. In open areas on Kendall Peak, a very thin surface crust topped the snow and there was a good amount of evidence of wind transport, with some textured surfaces and wind-pressed snow. Got some isolated cracking in the wind-pressed areas and uptrack tests above the skin track consistently yielded shallow blocks failing. I jumped on a few of my usual test slopes but couldn't get much to move.

Of course, my usual test slopes and just about everywhere else were covered with small Christmas trees as opposed to being planar. A good reminder that we still have a ways to go, but are off to a nice start to the season in terms of snowpack depth.