Zoa Sub-Peak Snowpack

Quick report

seton.kriese · Dec 10, 2023 · Retallack

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Quick report

Weather
cloudy
Ride Type
mellowSlopes
Riding Quality
ok
Snow Conditions
heavy, wet
Avalanche Conditions
avalancheConditionTemp

Skied Zoa today. Just enough coverage to skin from the car and ski back to the car. Weather was generally cloudy with periods of clearing skies and periods of light rain. Toured to 1800m ish on the subpeak before Zoa and never broke through the snow line. Snow was heavy and wet on top of rain crust but good enough for a second lap.

Weather

Wind Speed
windSpeedLight
Rainfall Rate
drizzle
Sky Condition
overcast
Wind Direction
S
Storm Start Date
2023-12-08
Storm Snow Amount
20
Precipitation Type
rain

Weather was mostly overcast with periods of rain and a few short clearing periods throughout our day. Wind was mostly calm with a few periods of light South wind. Did not bring a thermometer to make precise observations but temperatures felt a couple of degrees above freezing the whole time we were there.

Snowpack

Depth
95
Obs Type
point
Site Aspect
NW
Test Fracture
unevenBreak
Site Elevation
1800
Ski Penetration
5
Test Initiation
moderate
Foot Penetration
15
Test Failure Depth
20
Site Elevation Band
tln
Surface Conditions
newSnow
Test Failure Layer Crystal Types
crust

Dug a snow pit near the sub peak before Zoa peak proper. Pit was located on a NW aspect 18 deg slope near the top of the ridge in the treeline eleation band and height of snowpack was 95cm. Snow Profile: 0cm 4 finger unconsolidated 20cm Knife hard crust 21cm Pencil hard 26cm Knife hard crust 27cm 1 finger rounds 36cm Knife hard crust 37cm 1 finger rounds 47cm Surface hoar 48cm 1 finger rounds 95cm The snow is generally wet and heavy, mostly well bonded with several crusts in the upper half and little evidence of slab formation at our test location. Did not see any signs of significant facetting at ground level at this location. We conducted two compression tests with the following results: 1st test: CT M8 (uneven break) 20cm down on top of the crust 2nd test: CT M2 (uneven break) 20cm down on top of crust CT H7 (sudden planar) 47cm down on surface hoar layer