Date of Observation: 01/17/2021
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: East Beckwith
Aspect: East
Elevation: 10,000 – 11,600′
Avalanches: None
Weather: Light northwest winds. Partly to mostly cloudy.
Snowpack: We traveled on several steep east facing slopes near and above treeline without signs of instability. A lot of ski pole probing easily going to the ground indicated the persistent slab structure was mostly faceted away. We dug a test pit in a concave part of the bowl holding a deeper, denser snowpack. Despite an unnerving looking structure (see photo), tests produced non-propagating results. We chose to avoid this part of the bowl, regardless.
Last week’s winds did little to damage the weak snow surface here, apart from forming a thin windcrust above the facets at higher elevations. All elevations that we traveled on have a persistent weak layer continuous across the terrain (1-1.5mm, Fist hard). Meltfreeze crusts are on anything with a hint of south and grow thicker with southerly tilt. See photos and captions for details.
Photos:
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- The thin wind crust capping facets above treeline will make for a pronounced hardness difference, which I suspect will help drive propagation further whenever a slab develops
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- This is the worst structure we could find, where the snowpack was denser and deeper
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- Facets are prevalent at or near the surface, despite winds
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- Very thin and soft meltfreeze crust on some easterly slopes, with facets above and below
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- Most terrain we traveled on it was easy to shove a ski pole to the ground, indicating how the snowpack is mostly just weak and faceted
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- Southeast aspects near treeline have some thicker crust/facet/crust sandwiches
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- Snow coverage on northwest facing terrain of the Anthracite Range
