Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

I traveled up the Hidden Lake Lookout Trailhead road to the winter (ridge) access trail, my preferred route due to the High avalanche danger. I made my way up through the trees sticking to the ridge, and topping out at about 5800ft where the route joins back up with the summer trail. The combination of minimal visibility and avalanche danger aided in my decision to return via the same route. I stuck to slopes less than 30 degrees and did not see any signs of avalanches. The day was a combination of snow squalls and zero vis at my max elevation, with occasional patches of blue sky and sun which I caught through the trees while ascending. About 2cm of snow accumulated during my tour. The only wind was a few moderate gusts at my max elevation. Ski pen was about 30cm once I reached about 4500ft and up, where there was substantial recent snow accumulation.

In hasty pits as I travelled I found occasional weakness about 35cm down on the Feb 4 interface, but I did not see any avalanches failing on that layer (I couldn't see much). In a pit at 5600ft on a WNW slope I found 150cm of snow sitting on top of the mid January melt freeze crust. In general, the snowpack was right side up all the way down to that crust. The main deviation was a buried surface hoar layer I found about 10cm above the crust, which produced clean shears. Other interfaces I marked on the pit wall did shear, but none led to results in compression tests, aside from one unrepeatable CT23 PC about 35cm down.