| Recent Avalanches? | No |
| Collapsing (Whumphing)? | Yes |
| Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | No |
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Center Ridge Meadows
AAS Pro 1 course final field day to check out the amount of storm snow and how well it is behaving.
After doing manual weather station observations at our temporary site near Neisman Memorial, we completed two short flat tours to investigate the snowpack. What a fine & wet storm day at the Pass!
Pro 1 course could not have asked for better five days to see the evolution of the snowpack during a big storm cycle.
Obvious signs of instability
Observer Comments
Heard a significant whumph when stopping as a group of seven.
Weather
Storm day!
Sky obscured.
Mixed rain and snow all day keeping conditions rather moist.
Light winds, but no snow transport on the surface.
Temperature 32F/0C.
Snow surface
New snow. Lots of it. Boot pen the full inseam.
Snow moist till ~30cm depth
Snowpack
We had a temporary manual weather station set up at the flats and we were able to measure the snow accumulation and SWE amount from 1/5 2pm to 1/10 9am - 85 cm/34 " of new snow with 107mm/4.2" of SWE.
We dug test plus pits on a meadow close by. Storm snow was slabbing near the top due to the temperatures and moisture content, but our layer of concern was the surface hoar that got buried at the beginning of the week and now sits ~120cm/47" depth. Test results on this layer include CT14SC, CT24SC, PST 54/120End and PST40/120End. Our ECT test results were not that exciting, most likely because ECT is not a good indicator on the stability of weak layers below 100cm.
Wicked amounts of new storm snow. Storm measurements taken at a temporary manual weather station.
Buried Surface Hoar ~120cm down was the reactive layer in our tests. Photo:Jake Kayes