New snow and windslabs
SnowpackEirik Sharp ACMG · Dec 19, 2016 · White Pass West
Quick report
- Weather
- cloudy, warm, windy, stormy
- Ride Type
- openTrees, mellowSlopes
- Stayed Away
- convexSlopes, alpineSlopes
- Riding Quality
- good
- Snow Conditions
- windAffected, powder
7cm of new snow overnight in the Log Cabin parking lot translated to 15-20 cm thick fresh soft slabs in wind loaded features. This new snow sits above a variety of old wind affected surfaces. We dug a snow pit on a NE aspect at 1200m where old stiff windslabs from the recent north winds, up to 50 cm thick were sitting above 5-10 cm of facets. This layer failed with a rutchebloc score of 3. We stayed out of the alpine but the new snow dramatically improved ski conditions on sheltered slopes at tree-line compared with yesterday. Snow started falling again in the late afternoon accompanied by light southerly winds.
Weather
- Avg Temp
- -5
- Max Temp
- -4
- Min Temp
- -6
- Wind Speed
- windSpeedLight
- Blowing Snow
- light
- Sky Condition
- overcast
- Snowfall Rate
- 2
- Wind Direction
- S
- New Snow24 Hours
- 10
- Storm Start Date
- 2016-12-17T20:00:00.000Z
- Storm Snow Amount
- 10
- Temperature Trend
- steady
- Precipitation Type
- snow
Snowpack
- Depth
- 100
- Obs Type
- point
- Site Aspect
- NE
- Test Fracture
- sudden
- Site Elevation
- 1100
- Ski Penetration
- 18
- Test Initiation
- moderate
- Foot Penetration
- 20
- Test Failure Depth
- 60
- Site Elevation Band
- tln
- Surface Conditions
- newSnow
- Test Failure Layer Crystal Types
- facets
New snow sits above 40cm thick pencil hardness old windslab over 5cm 4 finger hardness facets. CTM4 down 60, ECTP14 down 60, RB 3 WB down 60.