Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Went for a quick tour at Kendall this morning. Overcast with occasional sunbreaks, light W winds at ridgelines, intermittent snow flurries, with light snow falling when I left the Pass at 2:00 pm.

I did not observe any recent avalanche activity. No shooting cracks while breaking trail, test slopes were not reactive. I did see older avalanche debris near rocky cliff faces, and evidence of tree bombs, all of which I assume occurred during the warmer weather earlier this week.

I found 20-30cm of new low density snow on a crust from 4000'-5000'. I was hopeful the crust might not be present on shaded N aspects, but that wasn't the case, I found consistent crust on all aspects. I dug a quick pit at 11:00 am on a NNE aspect at 4370' in large trees below Kendall Knob. Shovel tilt tests failed easily on a mid-storm layer 22cm from the surface. Compression tests also failed on this 22cm deep layer (CTE BRK). A 3cm crust was 30cm below the surface, at the interface with the new snow. I found the new snow generally well-bonded to the crust layer.