calm before the storm

Quick report

Weather

cloudy, foggy, stormy

Ride Type

alpineSlopes, mellowSlopes, openTrees

Stayed Away

convexSlopes, steepSlopes

Riding Quality

good

Snow Conditions

hard, powder, windAffected

Snowpack

Depth

185

Obs Type

point

Site Aspect

SE

Test Fracture

sudden

Site Elevation

2240

Test Initiation

easy

Foot Penetration

20

Test Failure Depth

25

Site Elevation Band

alp

Surface Conditions

newSnow

Test Failure Layer Crystal Types

crust

Today was a day for our AST 1 group to get our heads in the snowpack! We started the day getting our hands in the snowpack at 1640M with a quick hand shear test. This produced moderate resistant results on the facets down about 50cm above the melt freeze crust from Feb 3. We then moved to 2200M and did a rutchblock test with the sled on a SE aspect (within some protected trees on a slope of 20 degrees). This produced no results. We then moved to a SE aspect at 2240M just below a wind affected ridge top and we did many compression tests. We had quantifiable easy sudden collapse results in the top 25cm of new storm snow that was sitting on a thin layer of a melt freeze crust. The persistent weak layer that is sitting down 55cm here has facets sitting on top of a 10cm thick melt freeze crust and was producing some inconsistent hard results. I think I will be playing it conservative at tree line and alpine elevations during this upcoming storm cycle that will add extra weight to the already touchy snowpack.