Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

After a windy skin up Maggie's, dug a pit on the west edge of the Bowling Alley around 1pm on a NE aspect (30 degrees) with a slope angle of 34 degrees. Skies were obscured and foggy, winds were light in the lee of the ridge but blasting to maybe 30mph on the ridge out of the southeast. Temps were warm but what little precip fell was still frozen at the time. Snowpack was 135cm deep where I dug and there was 53cm of right side up snow above the rain crust with a steadily descending density from fist to 4 fingers to 1 finger down to that knife hard rain crust. The only result from a column compression test was a CTM resistant planar fracture of a thin weak layer at 13cm below the surface. The snow above this layer was not very cohesive and crumbled upon movement. Snow on eastern and southern aspects seemed to be warming more quickly than northern aspects and became heavier and stickier as the day progressed.