Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Light (less than a cm an hour) snow in the morning and low visibility. Clearing by early afternoon with passing clouds obscuring visibility in the 4000-5000’ band.

We found ~12” of fist hard snow over the 12/21 crust in the trees on NE aspects that made for reasonable skiing that only occasionally bottomed on the crust. In Pinapple basin there was 16-20” of (4F) wind blown snow on top of and apparently bonded to the crust which made for smooth buttery turns.

On descent, I observed a crack shooting off the tip of my ski in the tree/boulder field on a NE aspect around 4000’ just above Source lake. We observed no other obvious signs of instability - it seemed likely an isolated observation very specific to the tree/rock/open creek features in the area.