Observation: Hatcher Pass

Location: 4068 (?)

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Skinned from Fishhook Lot up to Peak 4068, did 2 laps on Easterly aspects. The West wind suddenly turned on at about 11am and had periods of very strong gusts through the afternoon

Red Flags
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Observer Comments

none.

Weather & Snow Characteristics
Please provide details to help us determine the weather and snowpack during the time this observation took place.
Weather

bright skies both Saturday and Sunday. Calm on Saturday and very cold in the shade. West to NW Wind picked up on Sunday midday and gusted 10-50(?) mph across ridges. Sometimes depositing snow and filling in old tracks in less than an hour. Other times the wind down sloped and scoured away existing snow, even some fairly stiff old wind crust. I noticed that old snow around any dark protrusion (rock, grass, twig) was rotting/melting fairly quickly in the sun.

Snow surface

highly variable wind pack surface, difficult but fun skiing.

Snowpack

Did not dig an official pit, but several quick hand pits found a snowpack 35-80cm deep with varying degrees of wind affected snow over a crust, over loose old snow, over a *very* hard rain crust, over a decomposing ground facets. Nothing felt like it would propagate, very "low energy" snow, despite the various layers. I'm sure much of this has changed now because of the wind.

Photos & Video
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