Poverty Gulch

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/21/2020
Name: Eric Murrow
Subject: Poverty Gulch
Aspect: North, North East, East, North West
Elevation: 9000′ – 10650′
Avalanches:none observed

Weather: Overcast skies with light snow and calm winds with just a few very light gusts from the west in the afternoon. New snow accumulations just under 2″ at ~3pm.

Snowpack: While ascending we were able to find surface hoar buried last night on shaded slopes underneath the little bit of new snow. It was generally small only about 4mm. Dug a test profile in the upper snowpack to look at buried weak layers that formed and were buried over the past few weeks. Site was NW facing, at 10650′, that is susceptible to wind events as it is quite open. We choose this site to see if the buried surface hoar was present in windier locations. Down 45cm is a thin layer of near-surface facets with some small surface hoar sitting on it. This layer popped in shovel tilt test, and produced CT11 & ECTN16. Hammering on CT and ECT showed a planar interface down 55cm as well but well beyond standardized test. The slab over the surface hoar has settled significantly over the past week with boot pen about a foot deep.

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