Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Apart from the observations above, I found a 2" thick rain crust buried under 12/19's fresh storm snow ~1' down. The slab was stout by failed suddenly with 4/4+ finger pressure applied via the butt of my trekking pole. The layer immediately below the rain crust was dry powder/unconsolidated storm snow.

The slab was observed at around 3.4k' on a S facing slope and didn't appear to be the result of snow disturbed by grooming, but didn't take another observation to confirm this.

We stuck primarily to the road, but went through the trees twice (once between 3.9k'~4k' and between 4.4k'~4.6k') on low angle slopes. Discovered variable depth deep powder (1'~2') between tree wells (all 2"~3" diameter conifers). Did not encounter stout wind crust on summit cornice and much of the underlying snow was unconsolidated/easy to compress to air with the butt end of my trekking poles. Was not able to run to ground with the full length of my trekking poles (time to start carrying my avalanche probe to get more accurate measurements).