Observation: Turnagain

Location: Tincan to 2200'

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Skinned and skied normal up track.

Red Flags
Red flags are simple visual clues that are a sign of potential avalanche danger. Please record any sign of red flags below.
Observer Comments

Recent Precipitation - up to 20" of new snow in the upper elevation of Tincan.
No other obvious signs were observed, but this amount of new snow is worth noting as a Redflag.

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

Lightly snowing w/ broken skies at times
35F at 1000'
upper 20's F at 2200'
Rain/snow line was near 1000'
Winds were calm

Snow surface

Tincan:
1000' ~ 10" of wet new snow
1500' ~ 15" of unconsolidated new snow
2200' ~ 20" of unconsolidated new snow

Motorized lot had 8" of wet new snow
Sunburst parking lot only had 3" of wet new snow.

Snowpack

10" - 20" of new snow is sitting on a weak layer for faceted snow. This faceted snow is sitting on a crust at mid elevations.
Did numerous hand pits at several elevations with Easy results, however the slab was unconsolidated fell apart after it released.

Dug a pit at 2200' on a SW aspect. HS=170cm, 20" of new snow sitting on 6" of faceted snow on top of a Pencil hard crust. Test Results: ECTX x 2. The new snow was very loose (4 Finger to Fist Hard) and was sitting on a 4F hard facet layer. The new snow did not yet seem to have slab like properties.

*As this new snow settles it will like become more cohesive. Wind and/or warm temps could easily speed up this process making the new snow more 'slab' like. This is something to pay attention to since this new snow is sitting on a persistent weak layer of facets.

Photos & Video
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