Chester Lake Snowpack

Quick report

Weather

warm, sunny

Ride Type

denseTrees

Stayed Away

steepSlopes, sunnySlopes, convexSlopes, openTrees, alpineSlopes

Riding Quality

terrible

Snow Conditions

crusty, wet, heavy

Avalanche Conditions

avalancheConditionSlab, avalancheConditionTemp

Took the skis for a walk to Chester lake, dug a pit, skied back. Saw lots of natural activity on Mt Chester and Gusty Peak, including some big slides. Saw evidence of some cat 3, pushing 3.5 slides (likely yesterday) on Chester. Very warm out, 14degC back at the car. Tshirt weather all day.

Weather

Max Temp

14

Min Temp

-4

Wind Speed

windSpeedCalm

Blowing Snow

none

Sky Condition

clear

Wind Direction

NW

New Snow24 Hours

0

Temperature Trend

rising

Precipitation Type

none

Precipitation24 Hours

0

Snowpack

Depth

147

Obs Type

point

Site Aspect

SW

Test Fracture

sudden

Site Elevation

2200

Ski Penetration

20

Test Initiation

veryEasy

Foot Penetration

100

Cracking Observed

1

Test Failure Depth

140

Site Elevation Band

tln

Surface Conditions

crust

Whumpfing Observed

1

Test Failure Layer Crystal Types

facets

Test one went at 8 taps, test 2 at 9 taps. Third test was totally dislodged by the saw before any taps. All three tests failed just above the ground, with the whole pack dislodging. Top layer was very crusty from freeze thaw, really well bonded middle layers, but deep persistent layer took almost no effort to dislodge.