Observation: Hatcher Pass

Location: Japanese Trees

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Went for a short tour to check out conditions in the lower elevation band.

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

3-4" of new snow on top of the drizzle crust.

Snow surface

Settlement cones could be observed throughout the tour. The drizzle crust can be felt while breaking trail and on the descent.

Snowpack

The drizzle crust was present throughout the entire tour and failed on isolation in hand pits. In out snow pit we had poor structure, low strength, and high propagation potential. The drizzle crust was hard to target in stability tests, cutting the crust with out disturbing the upper columns was tricky. Some cracking occurred up to 3' in length occurred on the drizzle crust. The layer of concern ended up being an old MF crust @46cm sitting on top of 4-5mm Depth Hoar. This layer was reactive in both ECT and PST (see profile below).

Photos & Video
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