Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 12/11/2017
Name: Eric Murrow
Subject: Paradise divide tour
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East, South West, West, North West
Elevation: 9,600 – 11,750 Weather: Bluebird all day. Winds were blowing steady but light around 5 – 15, gusting to 20mph. Winds were out of the north. Air temps were pleasant with reading of 34f @ 11,100, 11:30am.
Snowpack: On the first part of our ascent went up westerly facing slopes 9,600 – 11,000. Snow surfaces were facets, and faceting crusts. Snow was shallow generally less than 35cm. Skiing was supportive.
Easterly slopes off of Cinnamon 11,000 – 11,750, were a again a mix of facets and crusts. Wind erosion has stripped much of this terrain, leaving many sculpted eroded features. Snow was supportive. Terrain features facing SE, out of the wind, softened just a cm or two which made for a few nice supportive, smeary turns around 1:30pm. Similar SE aspects the had more wind stayed cool and didn’t soften.
Dug one quick profile on an due North slope at 11,250 which had seen previous loading(HS 78cm), and found a cohesive slab resting over the Oct/early Nov snow. This site produced a hard propagating test result in an ECT (ECTP 21). This site had deeper snowpack than the immediate adjacent terrain, but shows the potential for isolated areas with deeper accumulations from loading to have a slab/weak layer present. See photo.
Photos:
