Date of Observation: 12/26/2022
Name: Evan Ross
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Primarily SE to SW between 10,000ft and 11,000ft.
Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Few clouds in the morning becoming overcast in the afternoon. Calm wind.
Snowpack: Targeted three test profiles, specifically looking at the upper snowpack, on SE, S and SW. The two most prominent interfaces are in the upper 15 to 35cm’s of the snowpack, depending on location, (12/11 and 12/20). On the south and southeast, the grains at those interfaces are around 1mm in size and notably rounding. The rest of the mid and upper snowpack at these locations had little change in hardness and looked generally strong, at least compared to current big-picture conditions. In the SW profile, the HS was notably less, and those two interfaces had slightly smaller grains, but they remained faceted and were not rounding.
Aspect: SE. Elev: 11,250. Slope: 30. HS: 103. 12/20 interface down 15cm and 12/11 interface down 25cm. 1mm rounding faceted particles at both interfaces. Some necking between grains. CTM, ECTN 15.
Aspect: S. Elev: 10,850. Slope: 30. HS: 128. Cross-loaded slope. The two interfaces were down 25cm and 30cm. Similar grains to the SE aspect. ECT PC 17, interestingly two additional loading steps were required to get the fracture to cross the column. Followed by an ECTN with no propagation across the column.
Aspect: SW. Elev: 10,800. Slope: 33. HS: 70cm. The two upper interfaces were down 15cm and 20cm. The most notable had a 1cm soft crust capping 1mm facets. Given the shallower snowpack compared to the other two locations, this snowpack was noticeably weaker and will handle less loading once a new slab develops.
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