Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Skinned up the typical SW face route on Lichtenberg to 5100'. Dug a pit and got ECTP17 at 40 cm down; this caused us to head back down rather than continue through steeper terrain to the summit. SW aspect, 35 degree slope. 10 cm soft snow (fist hardness) on 30 cm of heavy, wet, somewhat refrozen crust (4 finger hardness, maybe 1 finger at the bottom). This was on top of 10 cm of wet soft sugary snow (fist hardness) which caused the failure. Sudden planar, also collapsed an inch. Doesn't see any other concerning firm-on-soft layers down to 90 cm deep.

Snow depth 300 cm. Weather was warm, approx freezing, slight breeze at times. Sun occasionally peaked through. Evidence of west wind recently. Barely breakable crust above 4000'. Excellent conditions (1-3 in of fresh snow on supportable crust) below that.