CAIC Observation Report

Snowpack

As we started climbing the bowl above Trail Ridge Road, we observed some local whomphing and short shooting cracks. We dug two pits above the road in the northeast facing bowl - both 50-75 meters above the road. First pit had appx 85 cm of snow - we attempted to do a shovel compression test and the column failed as we were cutting the back side. The failure was ~15 cm above the ground at a very distinct sugar layer. The snow above the layer was very loosely bonded. Second pit also had ~85 cm of snow and failed at CT8 at the same layer