Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

There seems to be a shallow (2cm) crust due to the warming from previous days. The snow beneath the crust is rounds going to facets. When cutting a CT column, the crust moved on isolation - this would be my layer of concern if/when significant new snow arrives. Neither the CT or ECT exhibited any failures (CTN and ECTX) except for the upper crust. The snowpack seems strong but rotting away in the cold.

At our pit location, the snow was only 50cm deep and the temps ranged from -12c to -2c. The strongest temp gradient was in the upper 20cm of snow. We observed two stout crusts (MLK? and Xmas?) and faceting in many layers in between.

We did observed the remains of likely cornice failures from the north part of the peak. Unclear when this happened. See picture