Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Beautiful, calm day in the mountains with light winds out of the southeast under high, thin and broken cloud cover with periods of full sun. Took an awesome lap in stable powder (sometimes a generous dust on crust) down the Poma bowl and skinned back out to Idaho bowl for some midday snowpit practice. Made a big hole in the snow (I know) at 5230' on a 325 degree aspect on a 36 degree incline. HS = 182cm, boot pen = 42cm, ambient temp -1C. Found an interesting temperature gradient near the surface hoar covered surface that I tested repeatedly (0cm = -6.5C, 10cm = -8C, 20cm = -6C, 30cm = -5C, 40cm = -4C, 50cm = -3C, 60cm = -3C, 70cm = -3C) and got a CTH (29) result of a resistant planar fracture character down 49cm in the crust facet sandwich. A propagation saw test of this layer produced a PST 56/100 (END) down 49cm on the 23/01/28 layer and an audible collapse but no movement of the block. Sorry no photos today!