CAIC Observation Report
SnowpackBrian Gardel ยท Jan 30, 2011
Weather
Bluebird weather Friday and Saturday, with little to no wind. Mix of high clouds Sunday morning turning to mostly cloudy and windy at treeline by afternoon. Friday and Saturday's temperatures were warm with max temps in the valley floor reaching nearly 40deg. Sunday was slightly cooler.
Snowpack
North-East: Our measured snowpack depth on North through East was generally around 100inches on average, composed of deep dense slabs sandwiched between several persistent weak layers. Surface hoar formation over the weekend was becoming widespread at treeline and around ridgeline. Throughout the weekend we observed lots of sluffing running long distances on steeper shaded slopes. Compression tests were consistently failing on buried surface hoar with moderate to hard clean shears (CT-21-Q1 & CT-23-Q1 on 37deg slope @60cm from surface on NNE 10,400ft) and (CT-21-Q1 on 37deg slope @80cm from surface on ENE 10,300ft). On the solar aspects we observed numerous rollerballs and point releases on Saturday, some of them running long distances (500ft+). By Sunday morning sun crusts had developed on all solar aspects.