Bacon Rind ECT and Obs

ECT Results - ECTN 11 at 55cm

Location: Bacon Rind, Skillet, about the center of the upper skillet meadow, approx 100' below the ridge line N 44deg58.3210' W 111deg05.8191

Weather: Temp ~25F, cloudy, moderate snowfall, winds mild in trees, moderate winds on ridge line

Heading: E (110deg)

Elevation: 8890

Slope Angle: 34deg

Total Snow Depth: 110cm

We observed about 50-55cm of new and wind deposited snow on the eastern aspects that we assumed had been from snowfall/wind over the last week.  This new snow layer was generally F hardness.  The new snow was weakly supported by a 3cm thick faceted layer.  The ECTN 11 result was due to this faceted layer collapsing.  The remaining base snow pack was 50-55cm thick and approximately 2F hardness.  We repeated the test 2x in the same pit by digging back and retesting, the faceted layer failed both times without propagation, the ECTN 11 result was clear in the second test, the first test was hard to interpret but allowed us to identify the problem layer.  ECTX result on the remaining 55cm thick base snow layer. 

Wind loading produced dense snow drifts that were prevalent along the ridge line, but in the protected east aspect meadows below the ridge line there was much less evidence of denser wind loading.  We did not observe any whoomping either skinning up or skiing down or any signs of natural avalanches.   We skied the east facing short meadow just south of the skillet, then skied the SW facing meadow to the west of the ridge line and lastly skied the skillet to the valley floor.  As someone else reported earlier in the season the bottom half elevation of the run to the valley floor has many exposed downed trees and hidden hazards, personally I won't return to ski there until there is more snow depth at lower elevations.  The SW facing meadow had a supportable suncrust layer, with a mix of 6"-24" of wind drifted new snow depth, depending on where/how the wind had scoured it.