Observation: NWAC Forecaster

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Weather Summary

It was a beautiful calm and clear day to be on Hood. Alpine winds were light out of the SW which caused some drifting on the upper mtn above 9000 ft. Temperatures stayed in the high 20's and kept the snow surface cold and dry.

We observed the debris of a small dry loose on the upper mountain ( NE aspect, 9400 ft) above the Eliat Glacier. Likely triggered from Ice or rock fall.

Snowpack Observations

Throughout our travels we found minimal signs of instability. Snowpack test at mid and upper elevations revealed a right-side-up snow structure and produced minimal test results. At lower elevations we observed 4-6 inches of snow sitting on a crust and upwards of 12-14 inches at higher elevations sitting on the 2/13 interface.

In a test profile at 6100 ft on a NE aspect, we found a HS of 295 cm. We wanted to take a closer look at the new/old interface (2/13 layer) and found the new snow bonding well to the old snow surface. This interface produced a CT21 BRK, 35 cm below the snow surface. We did get a result ( CT12) on a mid-storm layer 20 cm below the snow surface which produced a resistant planar shear. ECT's produced no propagation or results ( ECTX). To test the reactivity of the MLK interface we used the deep tap test, this produced DT 22, RP result on a layer of 1 mm rounding facets sitting on the MLK IFrc.

Key Takeaways:

1). Some snow drifting on the upper mountain from SW winds ( above 8000 ft) could be producing some shallow slabs at these elevations.
2). Snow surfaces are getting weak! We observed widespread near-surface facets NTL/BTL and surface hoar in specific, sheltered locations at these elevations. It will be worth tracking the distribution of these weak grains before we get more snow later week.
3). The older wind slabs from 2/13 appear to be healing up and are stubborn to trigger on test slopes. I did observe some isolated cracking observed in these locations.
4). Ski quality is excellent in sheltered locations.