No obvious signs of instability since the last weather event
Observation: Summit
Location: Colorado
Traveled with the AAS Level 1 students up Colorado. We were practicing basic field observations and analyzing snowpit data. What a beautiful day!
Observer Comments
Weather
Broken skies that were clearing by late afternoon. Wind was calm, no signs of overnight winds.
Snow surface
4-6" dry fresh snow over the past few days. More as we skinned higher. Crust below fresh snow was thin.
Snowpack
We had the pleasure of digging several pits to correlate data. Pit depths averaged 115cm. We were on at 1900', on an east aspect, 24degree slope. Hardness tests showed an upside down snowpack structure. CT16, 23, and 27 down 30cm on the buried surface hoar. ECT results varied. Mostly ECTN low 20's on the buried surface hoar and one ECTP just above the basal facets layer down 90cm. Overall the buried surface hoar did not propagate but when it was stressed it did fail suddenly in CT tests.