Older wet loose debris visible on Seattle Ridge, but nothing observed today before 3pm.
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Magnum NW shoulder
Standard route up NW shoulder to 2750′.
Observer Comments
Weather
Clear skies
Mid 20F's
Light South wind
Snow surface
2mm crust at parking lot 950', all aspects - light rain crust?
Above 1000' -Suncrust on SW - S aspects 3- 4cm thick was softening by 2:30pm, but wasn't pushable yet
-Wind crust or 8-10cm dry loose snow on low angle and shaded aspects
Snowpack
Dug two pits on North aspects off the the NW shoulder of Magnum, each with very different structure
Test Pit 1: 2250', HS=105cm, 35*slope
CT15 - down 25cm on Leap Day NSF
CT20, ECTP27, ECTP25 down 70cm on 2mm facets below the NYE crust
*Dug adjacent to old debris from mid Feb avalanche cycle. Probed a fair bit. HS varied from 70cm to 120cm and I could feel crust/weak layers
Test Pit: 2750', HS=75cm, 34*
CTNx2
*The snow structure was very different in this area than the first pit. Although thin, it was right side up and didn't find any weak layers. I probed a 200-300' to get an overall sense of snow-depth and structure. Overall this area was shallow, 30 - 75cm, but didn't feel any obvious week layers. Mostly dense wind board or rimed crust.
Thin rain crust at 950'
Suncrust on steep South aspect of a gully
Pit 1 was in shaded area, lookers left of old debris
Pit 1 failed 70cm below the surface on 2mm facets
Pit 1 structure
Debris on Southern end of Seattle Ridge, SE aspect
Looking South at Seattle Ridge SE aspect
Looking North at Seattle Ridge, SE aspect
Sunburst West aspect