Date of Observation: 02/12/2016
Name: Seth Beers
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 10,000
Avalanches: No signs of instability during tour + no recent avalanches observed.
A majority of the steeper slopes and rollovers appeared to slide in the basin during the natural cycle post running on the mid-Jan surface facet layer.
Weather: Clear, warm, light SW winds
Snowpack: HS ~140cm. Ski Pen 10 – 15 cm, Boot Pen ~30 cm.
Surface snow was a mixed bag of sun crusts, wind effected snow and decaying powder/facets. There was also quite a bit of new surface hoar located at lower, tree covered areas around Gunsight Pass road. We did not observe this new layer as we moved higher.
Dug very briefly to see the mid-Jan surface facet layer + observe any SH that survived and was buried. Upper ~50 cm was F to 4F+ of what appeared to be rounding facets from our recent storm. This sat over a stout 1F slab. The mid Jan surface facets separated the two layers. Did not conduct stability tests but the SF layer appeared small + showed smaller grains that I remember from prior pits. There were no SH layers in the area I dug.