Observation: Public

Observation Details

Observed Avalanches

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

We traveled over a variety of terrain and aspects from 2,200ft to 6,200ft. The new snow line began at ~3,000ft. There was a thin rain crust on-top of the new snow that was noted from ~3,500ft to 5,000ft in elevation. We did see evidence of one natural mentioned previously, as well as copious amounts of wet-loose debris piles still exposed at lower elevations, but only scant evidence of storm/loose-dry debris. Otherwise, we saw no signs of overt instabilities. This included no shooting cracks, no whumpfing/collapses, and no new rollerballing. Other than aforementioned evaluations, the most apparent potential hazard we encountered throughout the day were the numerous treebombs from the trees shedding the heavy wet snow at lower elevations.

Several hand shear tests and ski cuts were conducted throughout the day. The hand shear tests produced various results between the various sites- although these all produced RP to BRK characteristics approximately 25-45 cm down, getting deeper with upward travel. Multiple ski cuts attempting to expose active wind slab and storm slab instabilities were conducted on a variety of aspects and terrain features, and these all proved unreactive.

We did do one proper but quick profile attempting to isolate some of the possible weak layers noted for the zone:
TIme: 1300
Location: NE aspect just below ridgeline
Elevation: 6,100ft
Slope Angle: 42 degrees
HS: over 325cm
Ski Pen: 40cm

Weather:
Sky: Obscured
Precipitation: None
WInd: Calm
Wind Direction: Indiscernible

Here we noted the following results:
CT12 @ 45cm down (RP to BRK characteristics, closer to BRK- Replicated twice with the same results)
ECTN13 @ 45cm down
Please see added graph for better visual representation of our quick profile

In all, we expected to see more reactivity in our testing, but the newer storm snow appeared to be bonding well in the areas we tested NTL and BTL.