Bad quality but a D2, R3 natural in Flanders cirque. Looked like it was just the new snow, but hard to say.... on a NW aspect around 9,500 feet
My ski partner and I dug a pit at the base of Divide peak on a SE facing slope at 9,600 ft. We had no failure in our compression test and an ECTX on our column test. The snowpack looked to be completely faceted yet consolidated from the ground to a crust layer just below the new soft snow. There was little evidence of wind loading in the basin and a layer of surface hoar was present on the snow surface. We passed another party who were digging multiple pits on a similar aspect and had the same results we found. We ran into a third party on the summit who dug a pit a few hundred feet from the summit that showed a slightly stiffer slab on the surface but again found stable results. This is still a tricky snowpack and this only shows that conditions were stable on this day at very specific locations. If you venture into Hyalite still do your homework before dropping in!
Today we toured up Storm Castle Ridge with hopes of skiing the 19th Street Couloir. On the approach we were able to trigger small (2-4") wind slabs on most lee aspects, these slides ran fast and far for their size. We dug a pit at 9200' on a North aspect and we're able to identify the surface hoar but had no results on our ECT. With 2 spotters I dug an ECT 10m below the top of the 19th Street Couloir and got and ECTP12@ 35cm below the surface. The slab was 35cm thick, pencil hardness and failed on faceted snow; the buried surface hoar found in most other pits was not present. We bailed to the opposite side of the ridge and enjoyed some wonderful burn skiing.
Today we toured up Storm Castle Ridge with hopes of skiing the 19th Street Couloir. On the approach we were able to trigger small (2-4") wind slabs on most lee aspects, these slides ran fast and far for their size.
Today we toured up Storm Castle Ridge with hopes of skiing the 19th Street Couloir. On the approach we were able to trigger small (2-4") wind slabs on most lee aspects, these slides ran fast and far for their size. We dug a pit at 9200' on a North aspect and we're able to identify the surface hoar but had no results on our ECT. With 2 spotters I dug an ECT 10m below the top of the 19th Street Couloir and got and ECTP12@ 35cm below the surface. The slab was 35cm thick, pencil hardness and failed on faceted snow; the buried surface hoar found in most other pits was not present. We bailed to the opposite side of the ridge and enjoyed some wonderful burn skiing.
Mostly facets throughout snowpack on east aspect of Divide Peak. Dug in search of buried surface hoar, none found. Melt-forms and lower density snow found between 85-81cm. ECTX.
Mostly facets throughout snowpack on east aspect of Divide Peak. Dug in search of buried surface hoar, none found. Melt-forms and lower density snow found between 85-81cm. ECTX.
From obs: "Toured into Alex Lowe basin today and noticed lots of point release slides. Most started as spindrift in the cliff bands along the ridge and gained more snow as they fell into the aprons. Skied a north and south facing couloir, ski cut at the top of both runs and got the new snow to sluff most of the way down. Didn't encounter any cohesive slabs, just lots of sluff sliding down."
From obs: "Toured into Alex Lowe basin today and noticed lots of point release slides. Most started as spindrift in the cliff bands along the ridge and gained more snow as they fell into the aprons. Skied a north and south-facing couloir, ski cut at the top of both runs and got the new snow to sluff most of the way down. Didn't encounter any cohesive slabs, just lots of sluff sliding down." Photo: S. Lipsteuer
Variable skiing at Lick Creek today. 2-3 inches of low density snow on the ground. Ski cutting on the north side wind roller produced very soft-soft slab results with little to no propagation directly under cornice. 4 inch soft slab on the interface. Ran about 20 feet with little entrainment.
It squalled out there around 12pm snowing S2 with little to no wind. That seemed to precede the squall in town by about 2 hours.
