CAIC Observation Report
SnowpackCrested Butte Avalanche Center ยท Jan 24, 2014
Weather
Overcast in early morning clearing to fully blue by 9:30, no wind on ridge tops, cold at the TH warming to about 25 by noon.
Snowpack
Noticed a lot of newly formed surface hoar in valley bottoms all the way to near the summit of Mt Axtell, feathers were large at at lower elevations (1-2cm) and incrementally smaller as elevation was gained. While breaking new track in forest and on ridge tops experienced no signs of instability. Multiple hand and shear test up to about 11,000 ft on N/NE slopes would fail Q1 on buried surface hoar layers about 12-16 inches down in snow pack though they took significant tugging. Dug a pit on a 40 degree, shaded, NE slope at 11,200. HS 155, ECTNR, Did a rudimentary shovel sheer on ECT column that took two of us prying to get result on a 4F hard depth hoar layer 35cm from the ground.