Tunnel Creek Jan 5-7 - Sunnyside & Backside

Quick report

Riding Quality

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Jan 5-7 at Tunnel Creek Cabin. Weather on all 3 days was low cloud/fog at ridgeline. 10 cm of new, heavy snow the night of Jan 5, another 5 cm the night of Jan 6. The afternoon of Jan 5 there was a sun crust on the surface on S-facing slopes up to ridgeline just above 1900m. A pit dug at 1900m on a S aspect in sheltered trees showed HS 165cm with the Nov rain crust down 90cm. The mid-Dec surface hoar was not observed in this particular location. CT2 at the sun crust, CT27 non-planar in the facets above the rain crust. On Jan 6 the new snow (10 cm) that fell overnight with strong northerly wind was creating a soft slab. Southerly wind was strong during the day. Dug on both sides of the Sunnyside/Backside ridge at 1940m in open areas in the trees. S aspect produced similar results to the one dug Jan 5. N aspect results: HS 207cm, rain crust down 120cm, very degraded (some faceting) mid-Dec layer down 68cm, CT5 Jan5 storm snow, shovel shear test produced a non-planar break with a moderate pull down 68cm. Strong winds the night of Jan 6 and the morning of Jan 7 were accompanied by ~5 cm of new snow which was creating a soft slab and had filled in our tracks from the previous days.