Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Skied several laps of chair 2 (top chair) at Mission Ridge today as part of AIARE L1. Temps at all levels were above freezing with light rain in the am. Snowpack is wet all the way to the ground at elevations above 6000' and drier lower. Free-water was collecting in areas where crusts had existed previously. Snow surface skied far better than expected as warm temps had softened crust. Still not great skiing, but improving. Wet Loose avalanches were not observed from today, but had run previously in steep (>40) terrain, primarily below 4400'. There is some pinwheeling, but it has not organized itself into wet loose. Lack of solar and very little rain seemed to slow this up. The snowpack is drier slightly below (5500) than higher up. We observed rounding facets that were most or wet below the 12/21 crust. Most common failure plane in compression tests was down 45 cm on the old snow-new snow interface 7-10 cm above the 1/2 crust. All CT results were moderate (Q2 - Resistant planar). Main concern was future free-water in the snowpack, which seems to complicate the usual rounding-faceting expectations. Surprised to observe no whumpfing or shooting cracks. We did ski relatively conservatively as we had not toured previously in this area since the big storm last week, occasionally touching up to 35 degrees. Our main concern in the near term would be continued rain or warm air temps as the free-water in the snowpack complicates guessing what comes next.