Wind was calm, scattered clouds in the sky increasing throughout the day. No new snow.
Observation: Chugach State Park
Location: Glen Alps to the base of Little O'Malley
We toured to around 2000′ from the Glen Alps trailhead heading west towards Little O’Malley. We were trying to check out the structure and strength of the snowpack and correlate that to our terrain choices. Winds were calm, however, recent loading showed signs of wind loading from the south.
Weather
Snow surface
Blend of soft transported snow, and scoured crust. Mostly supportable.
Snowpack
Lots of layers in the snowpack. Our pit depths ranged from 60cm to 120cm. We dug on a W aspect at 2004' on a 13 degree slope. Overall the snowpack was upside down with a slab sitting over a weak, less cohesive layer. Hardness tests allowed us to see 2 crusts sitting over a 1F layer with 4F to Fist facets closer to the base of the snowpack. Pit results were pretty amazing. We had a few ECTX results but mostly ECTP22/23/21 down 50/45/and 40cm in the facet layer. 2 ECT results had a fracture character of Sudden Planar (SP) and popped into the pit! Always exciting to see in an Avi course.
Pit location with curious students trying find the bad guys in the snowpack.