CAIC Observation Report
Snowpackcolin mitchell ยท May 8, 2010
Weather
6 am start, -5 C, sky 1/2 covered with high thin clouds, sun still poking through, winds calm, PPt no, Clouds moved in and sky was overcast at 1030 when we descended. Temp about 0, wind calm
Snowpack
HN about 10 cm, sitting on top of M/f crust. 4/25 snow has melted and 4/25 dust layer is on top of/within the crust in most areas (even north aspects). Bonding and stability were poor in areas where the sun was hitting. There were a lot of natural point releases, mostly near exposed rocks and cliffs, but on all aspects. Many appeared to be from yesterday, but, some were from today, and one fairly large R2,D2 ran while we were skiing. One of my partners kicked off a small wet slide on the north face of Radiobeacon at 1030 am. started from her skis, then fanned out a little, entraining more debris, and ran about 800-100 feet downslope and into couloirs on the west side of the lower part of the face. Other natural point releases we observed on east aspects, were entraining a lot of snow and running far. All ran on dust/crust layer about 10c down. Crust was supportable on all aspects,and down to 9200 feet at 1230