| Recent Avalanches? | No |
| Collapsing (Whumphing)? | No |
| Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | Yes |
Observation: Chugach State Park
Location: Chugach State Park
Quick after dinner tour into Chugach State Park to see how new snow is bonding to Friday’s surface. Deliberately avoided any avalanche terrain this evening.
Obvious signs of instability
Observer Comments
Small, very localized cracking in the surface snow. Obvious upside down snowpack as observed elsewhere in southcentral Ak this weekend.
Weather
Partly cloudy, east winds gusting to 15mph. Temp was 35F at 2,000' (7PM).
Snow surface
Variable. Hard, supportable wind slab to breakable wind slab above treeline. New snow is moist (hot powder) at and below treeline, 4-6". The variable surface made for difficult skiing.
Snowpack
4-6" of new snow at and below treeline sitting on cold, low density powder from the beginning of the storm on Saturday. Hand shears were failing easily within the dry snow.
At and above treeline, pencil-hard wind slabs (~12" thick) were overlying the low density snow. Did not observe a lot of energy in the snowpack but the structure was quite poor (strong over weak snow). Classic upside down storm as temps spiked roughly 15 degrees from Saturday evening to Sunday evening. Sorry, no worthy photos from this evening.