one small localized collapse near some alders. Moderate winds later in the afternoon, and 55cm of storm snow from this storm cycle. Small test slopes were unreactive.
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Lower Cornbiscut
AK avy school Pro 1 course toured to lower corn biscuit to asses the storm slabs. It was snowing very hard at times and the trail breaking was deep! We had another group at center ridge that experienced very similar conditions see snowpack details for info.
Observer Comments
Weather
Cornbiscut parking lot 1000' @ 11:00 NE winds light to moderate, obscured sky .5°C S2
Precipitation rate was between S2-S3 for most of the day, maybe even higher at times.
Snow surface
We toured to 1400' feet and did not encounter any wind transport. Snow surface was deep with knee deep trail breaking at times. Rimed precipitation particles were observed for most of the day.
Snowpack
Storm snow behaved like a slab near the road but as we gained elevation it quickly became less cohesive. Overall the snowpack had poor structure(12/1 crust was present) high strength, and still has moderate to high propagation potential. the 12/1 facet crust combo was reactive in CTs and PSTs. surface hoar buried by this storm cycle was present in a few of our pits but we were not able to locate it in all of them. Of note our group at center ridge had nearly identical PST results(within in 5cm)! Our layer of concern was 12/1 facet crust sandwich but was unreactive in ECTs.
Cornbiscut 1400'
18° West aspect
ECTN16 55cm from surface BSH/NSF
CT23 SC on 12/1 crust facet combo
PST 55/125 END on 12/1 crust facet combo
Cornbiscuit-07-Jan
IMG_3722
heavy precipitation rate made grain id difficult!