Bluebird skies, temps were 20's at car and 10's in alpine. Moderate to heavy loading of S and E aspects.
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Lipps
Toured around W and S aspects of Lipps from creek to ridge top, moderate to heavy snow transport throughout day. Snowpack was noticeably thinner than the N end of the pass, approach required some booting to get above tree line. Small natural windslab releases were visible on N face of Pete’s and W facing chute on Lipps. No other red flags observed.
Weather
Snow surface
Settled powder below 2500', typical mix of sastrugi, heady pow and windboard above 2500'.
Snowpack
Measured snow depths: 100 cm, 88 cm, and 70 cm @ 2590'. Lots of thin pockets and rock near ridge top.
Snow pit on loaded S aspect @ 2590' revealed a wet and rounded base, the only layer of concern being 4 cm of 4F decomposing grains below the recent melt freeze crust. We yielded an ECTN16 and ECTN18 on this layer below the crust, new snow appeared well-bonded to the top of crust.
Small basal facets still exist above 2900', although we observed no red flags. Pit profile below:
We found the fresh wind slabs from yesterday and today's winds to be largely unreactive.
Goldpan and Pastoral
Lipps-26-Nov