Date of Observation: 01/31/2016
Name: Donny Roth
Aspect: South
Elevation: 9000-11300
Avalanches:
Weather: Snowing all day, mostly S1+ until about 3:30PM when prices rate picked up significantly. Nearly no wind. About -6ºC all day.
Snowpack: Deep. SkiPen in the skin track of 30cm to 40cm – deeper at higher elevations. Surface was light and dry, low density snow. At treeline, there was about 50cm of recent snow, which got progressively stiffer to the old / new snow interface. The new snow didn’t feel like it was adding much of a load or becoming reactive until about 3:30PM… Then it seemed like the scales tipped. The storm snow was becoming more cohesive. I saw more cracking and I heard more whumpfing. I had multiple CTM11 50cm down, below the sun crusts which represent the old/snow interface. A PST didn’t produce dramatic results, but the slope angle was in the low 20s. We managed a good day of low-angle pow skiing, but I am thankful to have tomorrow off – I think the snow will be much more active.