Stoop Chutes Snowpack Test

Quick report

Weather

cloudy

Ride Type

denseTrees, steepSlopes, openTrees, mellowSlopes

Stayed Away

alpineSlopes

Riding Quality

amazing

Snow Conditions

deepPowder

Snowpack

Depth

115

Obs Type

point

Site Aspect

E

Test Fracture

sudden

Test Initiation

veryEasy

Test Failure Depth

15

Site Elevation Band

tln

Surface Conditions

newSnow

Test Failure Layer Crystal Types

stormSnow, facets

We dug a pit on a steep section of the drop in to stoop chutes, because we could see a lot of wind slabs in that area. Very Reactive wind slab and persistent slab beneath observed. We immediately carefully moved out of there and went for some less loaded trees. 3 Hand taps in, the wind slab let go at about 15cm deep. After 10 hand and 3 elbow, the slab below that let go at about 35cm. You can see pics at each release. The second slab left a very planar surface and looked like a faceted weak layer. We were quite concerned the wind slab would easily be triggered and step down to the persistent slab below.