Sunny
Single digits into 20's °F
Calm winds
Observation: Girdwood
Location: Max's
Standard uptrack
Weather
Snow surface
Surface hoar, 2-6mm, 12mm in some isolated spots
10cm of soft snow (Stellars and DF) beneath the surface hoar.
Breakable sun crust on solar aspects
See images
Snowpack
We specifically wanted to check out the snow surface, the Leap day BSH/NSF, and the January facets.
In two separate testpits at similar elevations we found January rounding facets (1.5mm) were ↓150cm at 1F harness surrounded by Pencil hard rounded grains and rounding facets.
The Leap day BSH (generally 3-6mm in many locations) & near surface facets were ↓20cm and reactive in Compression tests, but didn't propagate in several ECT's.
Most of the surface was covered with fresh surface hoar and the conditions varied from powder on northerly aspects and shaded areas to gradually becoming more sun affected on solar aspects. Where sun was playing a role, translucent crusts had formed. The skiing was challenging especially on solar aspects, but hop turns enabled us to consistently link turns.
Testpit #1
Max's
1921'
West aspect
CT11Q2 ↓20cm on BSH (4mm) & NSF (1-2mm)
ECTN 17, 14, 20
Hardness profile similar to testpit #2 in snowpilot image
2-12mm surface hoar throughout the tour on most surfaces
More surface hoar
Testpit #2
Testpit #2, 2mm surface hoar
3-6mm buried surface hoar ↓20cm in testpit #2
3-6mm buried surface hoar ↓20cm in testpit #1
Compression test failure from testpit #1 ↓20cm on buried surface hoar
Snowpilot profile from testpit #2
Snowpilot profile from testpit #2