Surprisingly few clouds until later in the afternoon when a high cloud layer moved in. Calm winds with temps staying below freezing.
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Eddies
Toured to the base of Eddies headwall and stopped to dig a pit at 2000′ on a NW aspect.
Weather
Snow surface
Large surface hoar at lower elevations, especially in the trees up to about 2000'. Mostly 6" of new snow on the surface with a 0.5-1" wind crust on more prominent features.
Snowpack
We dug one pit at 2000' on a NW aspect. The two layers that seemed most concerning are the 2/15 buried surface hoar, which was about 10" deep (25 cm), and the 2/5 facets, which were about 18" (45 cm) deep. The 2/15 BSH layer did not have propagation in our extended column test (ECT N 22). The 2/5 facets did have propagation in our extended column test, which is a sign that it could produce an avalanche and that is could be triggerable by a person (ECT P 28).
Glide cracks opening up on the SE aspect of Seattle Ridge near the uptrack.
Large surface hoar at lower elevations. We saw it up to about 2000'.
The 2/5 facets with full propagation in our extended column test.
Mix of soft snow on protected features and wind effected snow on more prominant ridgelines.
Surprisingly nice weather in Turnagain Pass for most of the day.
Snowpack structure from treeline elevation band on a NW aspect.