Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

More wind than we were expecting, and lots of roller balls easily triggered by skis. Weather was overcast, and clouds were moving in and out of the surrounding peaks. There was no precip, but wind was blowing snow around. Temps were just above freezing (snow was melting off our skis and bags as we dug a pit), and wind was gusting in the mid 20's at ridgetops, heading to the east. At 11am, we decided to dig a pit at 6,350ft on the SE side of Bullion peak, about 100 ft down from the ridge on the leeward side. Here's what we found:

We dug a pit about 80cm deep. Found a 2cm thick crust down 18cm (likely the 2/17 crust), a 3cm thick crust down 47cm (likely the 2/13 crust), and a 8cm thick crust down 65cm.

The hand-hardness we found is:
4F from 1-18cm
K from 18-20cm (crust)
1F from 20-47cm
K from 47-50cm (crust)
P from 50-65cm.

We did three compression tests and this is what we found:
Mine:
Failure at 21 taps under 1st crust.

Dan's:
Failure at 11 taps under 1st crust, Dan likely taps harder than me :)

Dan's 2nd:
Failure at 8 taps on non-cohesive storm later at 7cm, and failure at 15 taps under 1st crust.

We'd qualify all failures as Resistant Planar (Q2), as they failed in a planar fashion but weren't sliding easily.