High winds and blowing snow from PL on. Measured steady SE wind of 18mph with gusts to 30mph. Blowing snow and drifts building. Skies 2/3 covered with temp of 33deg at 1400. Had great view of classic lee wave cloud formed by high-altitude east winds being bumped over the Chugach Mts and cooling to the dew point (pic).
Observation: Chugach State Park
Location: Glen Alps, Chugach Front Range
Skied from Glen Alps PL along the base of and up to treeline on the NE aspect of Blueberry Knoll, then around the western aspect of same.
Weather
Snow surface
Snow surface mixture of windboard and melt/freeze crust. Mostly not breakable (pic). Considerable snow transport and drifting (pic)
Snowpack
Did pit on the NE aspect of Blueberry Knoll near treeline at 2395ft. Profile attached. HS = 82cm. Got CT15@22cm below surface. Collapse was on rounding facets underlying a MF layer. Got ECT22N on same layer.
Did not observe any signs of recent avalanches in S. fork bowl though blowing snow made observations difficult. Did not get good view of Wind Tunnel path below Flattop so couldn’t tell if it ran recently. No sign of recent avalanches of western aspect of Blueberry Knoll.
Windboard and MF crust near Glen Alps
Wind drifted snow Glen Alps
Lee wave cloudGlenAlps
SnowProfileBlueberryKnoll