Observation: Summit

Location: Fresno

Date:

January 17, 2019 3:00pm

Observer:

H. Thamm Professional

Route & General Observations

Skinned to 3100′ from the road. Height of snow gradually increased from ~50cm at 1400′ to ~90cm at 3000′. Ski pole could be pushed w force through slab to weak basal facets at the bottom of the pack – throughout the ascent. Hand pits had inconsistent failure on a layer of facets 25-35cm below surface. In a few hand pits BSH was found at this interface likely buried by the Christmas storm.

Red Flags

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Observer Comments

None

Weather & Snow Characteristics

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

Weather

Clear and sunny
Temps in the upper 20F's
Calm wind
No precip

Snow surface

Surface hoar on a thin crust. Surface hoar was needle-like and 5-10mm at lower elevations and 2mm at 3000'.

Just below thin crust sits 3-4cm of recent dry snow from Sunday/Monday.

Surface crust disappeared at 2400'.

Numerous sun triggered point releases, surface snow. These were observed on Tuesday - the sunny day between storms. We skinned across one of these point releases at 2600' and the snow was dry and soft.

Snowpack

Pit at 3000', N aspect, HS=85cm, 26*slope - CT23, CT19 failed 35cm below the surface on 1/25 BSH and facets, CT28, CT24 failed 70cm below the surface on 1mm rounding facets on deteriorating MF crust. ECTX

Second pit was adjacent with more of a SE tilt and a similar structure was found (minus the BSH) and similar results on the same two layers.

Photos & Video

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