Observation: Girdwood

Location: Girdwood Valley

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

We set out for a tour in the Girdwood Valley to look for a similar set up (reactive facets over a crust) that observers have been finding in the Turnagain Pass region. In the locations we dug, we did not find this set-up. We found a rather boring, fairly homogenous snowpack.

Red Flags
Red flags are simple visual clues that are a sign of potential avalanche danger. Please record any sign of red flags below.
Observer Comments

No recent avalanches, shooting cracks or whumpfing. North winds did pick up mid day on ridge lines and was actively blowing/ transporting snow into shallow wind slabs.

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

Trace of new snow in the morning. N/NW winds building throughout the day and gusting 10-15mph on exposed ridges. Temps dropping throughout the day (high 20's down to mid to lower 20's F at 1200') as colder, dry air moved in from the north.

Snow surface

1300': Dust on breakable crust over ground.
1700': 5cm dry snow on semi-supportable crust.
2300 - 2700': 10-40cm dry snow depending on wind deposits.

Snowpack

1700': 5cm dry snow over semi-supportable crust over moist facets.

Pit at 2700': N aspect, 30 degree slope, HS: 55cm
10-40cm (4F) dry snow over moist facets/ rounds (1mm) at the ground.
ECTN13, CT11,13,15 all failed on moist facets/ rounds at the ground.

We jumped on a handful of small wind features but could not get any cracking to initiate.

Snowpack tests didn't show a super strong snowpack but the snow felt sluggish and without much energy to propagate. I'd expect that to change with more wind in the forecast.

Photos & Video
Please upload photos below. Maximum of 5 megabytes per image. Click here for help on resizing images. If you are having trouble uploading please email images separately to staff.