Observation: Seward

Location: Carter Lake

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

We toured up to Carter Lake to check out snow and avalanche conditions. It was snowing and the sky was obscured so we weren’t able to see much.

 

Red Flags
Red flags are simple visual clues that are a sign of potential avalanche danger. Please record any sign of red flags below.
Observer Comments

We didn't see any red flags except the rate of precipitation increased throughout the day to at least 1" per hour by 1pm.

Weather & Snow Characteristics
Please provide details to help us determine the weather and snowpack during the time this observation took place.
Weather

It was cloudy and snowing all day with increasing intensity as the day went on. Winds were light and variable. Temperature was 32 degrees at the parking lot.

Snow surface

There was a trace of new snow at the parking lot. By the time we reached 800’ there was 4” new and at 1,050’ there was 12” of new snow.

Snowpack

We dug our pit at 1,550’ on a SE aspect on a 24 degree slope angle. The snowpack in this location was 3’ deep. The Thanksgiving crust was 2’ below the surface, which means 2’ of snow fell since last weekends really warm storm. We didn’t get any significant test results (CT21 10” below the surface on an interface within the storm snow and ECTN11 also 10” below the surface). The snowpack is right side up besides the Thanksgiving crust.

Photos & Video
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