| Recent Avalanches? | Yes |
| Collapsing (Whumphing)? | No |
| Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | Yes |
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Eddies
We toured up to treeline on Eddie’s and turned around when we couldn’t tell the difference between the ground and the sky because so much snow was blowing around. Light snow in the parking lot this morning, with winds and precip picking up through the day.
Obvious signs of instability
Observer Comments
We got shooting cracks spiderwebbing out on a wind loaded slope while we were skiing down. It was basically a mini-avalanche but it only moved about 2" because the slope wasn't steep enough. Cool to watch.
Weather
Obscured skies with winds picking up out of the northeast through the day. At times blowing snow made for full vertigo conditions. We probably picked up 4-6" while we were out, and likely more at higher elevations.
Snow surface
Surfaces varied from over a foot of soft snow (today's snow combined with last week's faceting snow) to dust on crust, to surfaces scoured down to the Thanksgiving crust or even the ground along the ridge.
Snowpack
We dug two pits at 2000' on a north aspect. (profile and photos attached). The slope was sheltered from previous winds, so there was about 18" soft snow on top of the Thanksgiving crust. We did not get any propagating stability tests, but got multiple failures on top of the crust (ECTN22, ECTN20, CT 24,21). We also picked out a layer of surface hoar that was buried on 12/6. That layer also did not propagate in any of the stability tests (ECTN12, CT12,13), and generally looked less concerning than the Thanksgiving crust/facet combo. There was no sign of concerning snow on the ground in this pit. Any facets that previously existed have rounded out and the layer is now 1F to Pencil hard.
Snowpit on a north aspect at 2000'. Photo: Andy Moderow. 12.11.2022
Andy Moderow in the snowpit. 12.11.2022
Looking south towards where Tincan should be... 12.11.2022
View to the north at 2000'. 12.11.2022
Feels good to have winter back. 12.11.2022