Observation: Turnagain

Location: Center Ridge

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

APU Snow Science 1 scouting mission for field research location & getting the feel for the status of MLK BSH.

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

None observed

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

Clear skies, no wind nor precipitation.
Temperatures cold, single digits to teens.

Snow surface

10-15cm of soft faceted snow on the surface
The temperature gradient in the top 20 cm of the snowpack was phenomenal. While the air temperature was -12 C, the snow surface was much colder at -20 C. Snow was colder than air all the way down to 20cm from the top. It was a textbook evidence on the cooling effect of outgoing longwave radiation under clear skies.
We did not travel to the alpine, hence we missed the wind impacted surface conditions.

Snowpack

Dug a test plus pit at 1900'.
HS 130-160cm.
Layer of concern, MLK buried surface hoar was easily identifiable, but stubborn to react.

Photos & Video
Please upload photos below. Maximum of 5 megabytes per image. Click here for help on resizing images. If you are having trouble uploading please email images separately to staff.