Observation: Hatcher Pass

Location: Friendship Pass

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Skinned up the Independence Mine road, then continued straight back to Friendship Pass.

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

Intermittent white out clouds and blue skies. No wind. Temps around 10 f.

Snow surface

6" - 16" new snow from previous weeks storms. Very small hoard frost development on the surface.

Snowpack

Dug a pit on a south-southeast aspect at ~4,000'. Snowpack depth 215 cm. Non-reactive ECT test. General observations showed ~10cm of new snow becoming progressively more consolidated from top to bottom; right side up new snow. Below the new snow layer was a consolidate (1 finger) hardness slab 1.5m thick. This was as far down as we dug. One interesting observation was a very sugary/faceted layer of snow that could be felt when reaching down below the test depth which made us think there could still be a deep persistent issue.

Photos & Video
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