Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

On the way up Sahale we noticed snow line the night before had been about 7500' with 1-2 inches of new snow.

We were skinning across the Sahale Glacier on the low angle bench at 8300' when we started noticing whumpfing. Got to the ridge on the east end of the glacier and switched to booting. We at first assumed the weak layer was shallow and low consequence, but after a few steps decided to dig down and see what was going on.

6 inches down we found cohesionless grains sandwiched between two crusts. A couple hand shear tests took a decent amount of force to fail but the failure was sudden and energetic. Given the depth of the slab and potential for wide propagation we decided to turn around and enjoy the 6000' of skiing. Still possible to ski down to Doubtful Lake by going far skiers left and conditions were excellent.

Hand shear test: https://photos.app.goo.gl/dtxENtaWdsxKxaGu9