No cracking or collapsing was observed during our tour today. Forecasters heard reports of cracking and collapsing near independence mine. By 1pm two inches of new snow had fallen at Presidents.
Observation: Hatcher Pass
Location: Presidents Ridge
Went for a quick tour up President’s Ridge to check on stability and see how much new snow had fallen. Visibility was very limited
Observer Comments
Weather
By 1pm two inches of new snow had fallen on president's ridge. There was very limited visibility today and it felt quite stormy.
Snow surface
Snow surfaces were soft low density snow during our tour. Some limited wind pressing was observed but it was very subtle and no significant signs of wind transport was observed. We were likely not high enough in elevation to observe any wind transport.
Snowpack
The snowpack has the same poor structure that we've been seeing so far this season. In some of our compression tests we had failure on the rain crust 40cm from the surface. We also had failure on the basal facets at the ground in our compression test results. Our ECTs did not propagate on any layer. However PST results were showing high propensity for propagation on the basal facets at the ground.
President's Ridge
East 3300' 28ยบ
HS 100cm
CT6 SP 30cm from surface on rain crust
PST 25/100 SF 30cm from surface on rain crust
CT16SC on the ground failing on basal facets
PST 25/100 END on the ground failing on basal facets
Grain card is marking the rain crust that formed Dec 5th.