Observation: NWAC Forecaster

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Weather Summary

It was cold and damp throughout the morning, with a few patches of blue sky peeking through first thing before snow showers increased with a few periods of moderate. While not immune to them, the winds were not felt as much down in the trees. Looking up at the peaks, they appeared fairly strong.

Avalanche Observation Comments:

No new avalanches were observed. I was able to push some snow on the prior sun crust and it ran a little way as a loose, but there simply wasn't enough mass to consider it an avalanche.

Snowpack Observations

What a difference a few inches makes. As the snow and wind continued to do their work, ski and travel conditions improved throughout the day. Getting an accurate measurement of the new snow was challenging, I measured 5cm while another avalanche professional measured 3 around 10:30am. Depths were definitely increasing as we left the field around 12:30. I was able to get some small isolated cracking in wind-stiffened terrain with a few tiny blocks popping, but no actual shooting cracks.

With minimal new snow in the morning and it being quite low-density, it was difficult to get a real feel for how it had bonded to the prior weak surfaces. The general consensus is that the bond isn't great, but there just wasn't enough of a slab to be an issue on Sunday. Preserved near surface facets and some surface hoar pieces were found just below the new snow, along with some rimed precipitation particles that likely kicked off the storm. Looking at our deeper layers (12/8 and 12/5), the 12/8 still failed in small column tests, but neither layer propagated in large column tests. [CT18, ECTN19 both on the 12/8]

The 12/8 was down 19cm and the 12/5 was down 31cm.