Lots of debris piles from the middle of this week's storm, but nothing that looked fresh.
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Sunburst
We toured up to about 3500′ on Sunburst to get a look at the snowpack at a little higher elevation. We found about 4′ of snow on the ground, including around 10″ of old snow below Thursday’s storm. There was a layer of moist faceted snow right at the ground that was stubborn but did produce some results in the pit. Taking into account the info from our pits and the recent large avalanche in the nearby Goldpan area, we know there are some issues at the bottom of the snowpack.
Observer Comments
Weather
Temps were cold at the truck this morning, getting up into the 20's F during the day, with warmer temps once we gained a little elevation. Clear skies and no wind made for great conditions.
Snow surface
The storm snow continues to settle, making for great surface conditions. Around a foot or so of soft snow on top, getting progressively stiffer with depth. There was a really consistent layer of surface hoar on the surface that got bigger at higher elevations.
Snowpack
From our snowpit at 3400' on a south aspect:
We found a moist layer of ~2mm facets at the ground, below a melt/freeze layer that was about 2" thick. We did not get any results from extended column tests, but we did get failures above and below the crust layer with compression tests (CT24, CT26). The structure has some issues, and we suspect the most problematic areas are high elevation, steep, rocky slopes. Any slopes that had snow on the ground before this week's storm should be treated with extra caution.
See attached photos for detailed pit info.
A fresh layer of surface hoar from the road up to the ridgetop. The grains got bigger with elevation. 11.12.2023
Closeup of surface hoar at 3400'. 11.12.2023
One of many piles of avalanche debris from avalanches that released during last week's storm. 11.12.2023
More debris from mid-storm avalanches below Tincan Proper. 11.12.2023
Snowpit from a south aspect at 3400'. The layer of concern is in the faceted melt forms right at the bottom of the pack. Photo and pit by George Creighton. 11.12.2023
Detailed snowpack information from our pits at 3400'. 11.12.2023