Trees and chutes near Gypsum Ridge
Snowpacknick.randell4 · Jan 23, 2021 · Spray - KLakes
Quick report
- Weather
- sunny, cold
- Ride Type
- openTrees, denseTrees
- Stayed Away
- alpineSlopes, convexSlopes
- Riding Quality
- ok
- Snow Conditions
- windAffected
Conditions are definitely deteriorating from our early season Winter Wonderland! We observed a lot of facetting in the lower snowpack, and got surprisingly easy results on a column test on a SE aspect bowl at treeline (See Snowpack). Ski quality was ok, ski penetration of wind crusts made for difficult riding and unconsolidated snow in the trees made trail breaking and skinning difficult.
Weather
- Max Temp
- -9
- Min Temp
- -23
- Wind Speed
- windSpeedCalm
- Blowing Snow
- none
- Sky Condition
- clear
- Precipitation Type
- none
Cold! -23 at the car and -9 returning to the car (forgot to check thermometer at pit). completely clear skies and almost no wind.
Snowpack
- Depth
- 115
- Obs Type
- summary
- Site Aspect
- SE
- Test Fracture
- unevenBreak
- Site Elevation
- 2050
- Test Initiation
- veryEasy
- Site Elevation Band
- tln
- Surface Conditions
- crust
- Test Failure Layer Crystal Types
- facets
We dug a pit near the top of a southeast facing bowl opposite Gypsum Ridge. Results: Ct1 45-55 cm on facets. Non-planar shear. This layer broke without a shovel tap, just a hand place on top. Right depth for the Dec 13/14 weak layer which may be starting to facet? (Pic 2 shows slab in skier's hands) Facets from ground to ~40 cm. In some places the facets went right to the 45-55 cm weak layer. In others there was a ~10 cm hard layer between the two layers of facets. top 30 cm of snowpack was 3 different wind slabs near the top of the bowl. Areas without wind effect were unconsolidated making for difficult trail breaking and a lot of back-sliding. Small sub-treeline bowl on NE aspect of Gypsum ridge was unconsolidated and skied with a lot of sluffing.