all the avalanche paths into Friendship bowl had run several times in the past, didn't look recent. The Southwesterly facing chutes had multiple 1 meter deep debris piles at the bases from the past weeks.
Observation: Hatcher Pass
Location: Friendship Pass
Skinned up Gold Cord Road to check out snow near Friendship Pass. Very wind hammered everywhere.
Observer Comments
Weather
Clear skies overhead, but the sun was still blocked by the heavy clouds over the Kenai. 15mph wind going up the Pass, so a southerly wind in that local terrain.
Noticed snow blowing off ridges around Baby Ruth, Granite Peak, and Gold Cord Peak from a Easterly wind.
Snow surface
Soft to hard wind slab, easy skinning, not great turning.
Snowpack
Dug two pits 50ft apart at 4,400ft on a 34deg slope ESE aspect in Friendship Bowl.
First pit was slightly more exposed to wind, had a thin hard slab on top
dug 120cm deep
CT top 2cm failed on isolation Q1
CT11 Q2 15cm down
ECTP21 15cm down
2nd pit was slightly more into a deposition zone
Snow depth ranged from 170cm - 240 cm across the 1.5m pit
depth of layers within the pit varied +/-50cm across the pit face, but generally:
240-220cm Fist hard wind deposited snow
220-125cm 1-4 finger soft slab
125-120cm Fist hard layer of facets w/ a thin pencil hard crust above it
120-95cm 4finger~ish soft slab
95-90cm loose facets
90-20cm varying 1-4 finger soft slab
CT top 20cm failed on isolation with no energy and no distinct plane.
CT24 Q3 collapse at 60cm down
shovel pry after 30 hits released at 110cm down Q3.
ECTX, shovel pry after 30 hits did not produce a shear break, just chunks with no energy.
snowpack is deep in places