| Recent Avalanches? | No |
| Collapsing (Whumphing)? | No |
| Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | Yes |
Observation: Chugach State Park
Location: Above Canyon Rd.
Quick tour in front range to see how new snow is bonding to old surface.
Obvious signs of instability
Observer Comments
Small, localized shooting cracks. Appeared to be failing on density change within new snow.
Weather
Snowing lightly (S -1). Temps in single digits. Light wind from the south.
Snow surface
Soft, low density powder. Finally feels like winter!
Snowpack
Height of snow is highly variable from 25cm to a couple meters.
Height of new snow is ~55cm over knife hard melt/ freeze crust. No real slab yet but once the wind blows I'd expect very tender, easy to trigger wind slabs given ample snow available for transport.
New snow was bonding well to old surface in the single pit I dug. No notable test results though I was able to tease out a couple of density changes within the new snow.
No buried surface hoar found today though last Saturday (12/21) it was very much present (.5-1cm) on the surface near the Glen Alps trailhead, may have gotten blown over from Sunday (12/22) winds.
Small, localized cracking within new snow.
~55cm new snow over a knife hard melt/ freeze crust.