Observation: Girdwood

Location: Cat Track

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Travelled to 1200′ out the cat track. Snow depth increases rapidly above 1000′, but is still thin, weak, and faceted overall.

Red Flags
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Observer Comments

None observed.

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

Photos & Video
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