None observed.
Observation: Girdwood
Location: Cat Track
Travelled to 1200′ out the cat track. Snow depth increases rapidly above 1000′, but is still thin, weak, and faceted overall.
Observer Comments
Weather
Valley fog at ~2000 ft, clearing intermittently in the afternoon. Calm wind, temps in the upper 20's, maybe low 30's, noticeable inversion.
Snow surface
About a foot of settled powder sits on a 1/2" thick melt-freeze crust at 1200'.
Snowpack
Below 1200' there is about a foot of snow (in open areas) sitting on a 1/2" thick melt freeze crust, sitting on ~6" of faceted snow on the gorund.
At 1200' the foot of snow is still sitting on a 1/2" thick melt freeze crust, but the snow is much deeper below the crust. Boot pen was knee deep, and I punched through to my waist in spots. There are several layers of buried surface hoar and near surface facets in the top foot of snow. Hand pits failed easily on 1/4" layer of facets and 3-4mm buried surface hoar wedges sitting on the melt freeze crust.
Taku helping with a hand pit in the top foot of snow showing several layers of buried surface hoar and near surface facets sitting on a 1/2" thick crust.
Surface hoar and facets that failed easily in hand pits sitting on a 1/2" thick crust.
Crown on Mystery Mtn (?).
Wind effect visible on Raggedtop.