Some small localize cracking along skin track on 1-2" wind hardened snow. No shooting cracks.
Two small piles of debris were seen on N facing slope of Pete's North - likely natural wind slabs triggered earlier in the week, crowns were filled in.
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Lipps
Skinned up SW aspect of Lipps to 3200′. No obvious signs of instability were observed. Snow was surprisingly protected from the winds this week and still soft in many places. Found pretty stable snow in three test pits, with the exception of a 6″ wind slab that failed on isolation in compression test.
Observer Comments
Weather
Clear skies and sunny
Temps were in the single digits to 20's F at the road in the afternoon.
South wind to 10-15mph in the am, becoming light by mid afternoon. West wind on ridge top.
Snow surface
Variable - patches of wind hardened snow (1-6" thick) and large areas of 3-4" settled near surface facets
A sun crust was found on a steep Southern feature at 1800'
Snowpack
Dug three pits and found pretty stable snow in all locations with the exception of a 6" wind slab in one test pit.
Pit#1 - 2500' WNW aspect, 34 degree slope, HS=110cm, CTNx2 - Snow was right side up (Pencil to 1Finger to 4Finger.) .5-1mm near surface facets were found in the top 4" of surface snow.
Pit#2 - 2500' SSW aspect, 31 degree slope, HS=130cm - CTV, CT1- failed 15cm down on .5-1mm near surface facets. No other weak layers failed in tests. We did note that the bottom 30cm of the snowpack was 1F hard rounding facets and large melt/freeze grains.
Pit#3 - 3100' SSW aspect, 30 degrees, HS= 205cm - only dug 100cm deep. CT20, ECTN28 failed 45cm below surface on a density change (stellar fragments)
CT23, failed 62cm below surface on Feb.9 buried surface hoar. The surface hoar was 6-7mm, laying down and hard to see in pit wall. This layer did not fail in Extended Column test, even after kung Fu kick.
Surface conditions were variable, isolated wind slabs, some sastrugi, but for the most part the snow was softer than expected in most locations
South wind in the morning was blowing some surface snow, but wind became light in the afternoon.
Two small piles of debris from what looked like two wind slabs that released naturally - probably earlier in the week - since crowns were all filled in.
Skin track on S facing slope of Lipps, photo taken from 2500' pit location
Top 6 inches of snow was Pencil hard wind slab sitting on 10cm of Fist hard near surface facets
0.5 -1mm near surface facets found under a 6" wind slab (grid size =1mm)
Feb.9 buried surface hoar found in only one pit location at 3100' on S aspect
S. aspect of Goldpan
S aspect of Corn Biscuit
West face of Lipps