My Harvey North Ramp

Quick report

Snow Conditions

windAffected, crusty, deepPowder

Avalanche Conditions

avalancheConditionSnow

Attempted Mt Harvey’s North Ramp Tuesday. -Snow was falling at 2-3cm an hour through the morning. -in the forest and up to 1350M on the open, north face slopes we were completely sheltered from the wind however it was quite evident ridge top winds were quite productive. Spindrift was constantly dumping down the north face. -climbing the north ramp, we were primarily on the rain crust making for quick travel however at around 1300 meters and above we started experiencing deep pockets of snow, a result from the wind transport/spindrift. -A couple of these pockets had waist deep depths with no support other then the firm rain crust. -these observations resulted in our retreat along with one other party who was also on the route with us. -although the rain crust had made for great climbing travel earlier in the week it has quickly changed from that, back to what we have become accustom to this season.

Weather

Avg Temp

-3

Wind Speed

windSpeedModerate

Blowing Snow

moderate

Sky Condition

overcast

Snowfall Rate

2

Storm Start Date

2020-02-04T17:31:44.000Z

Temperature Trend

steady

Precipitation Type

snow

Snowpack

Obs Type

summary

Site Aspect

N

Foot Penetration

80

Cracking Observed

1

Site Elevation Band

tln, alp

Surface Conditions

newSnow, crust, variable

Test Failure Layer Crystal Types

stormSnow

Boot penetration varied from 5cm on rain crust to 80cm in pillows of spindrift collected snow. Although no proper put was dug due to the nature of the terrain (climbing in nature) simple tests of cutting an abstract of slope with an ice tool and loading above said cut was showing failure of the storm snow on the rain crust.