| Recent Avalanches? | No |
| Collapsing (Whumphing)? | No |
| Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | Yes |
Observation: Chugach State Park
Location: SE Shoulder of Swiss Bowl, South Fork
Note that considerable wind-loading occurred after this pit/observation, but it provides some insight into the deeper snowpack.
Skied up South Fork to lower shoulder of Swiss Bowl. Skied the upper shoulder due North aspect and the saddle East aspect. Reactive wind-slabs ~2-5 cm thick observed from the ridge down to ~100 feet below the ridge.
Obvious signs of instability
Observer Comments
cracks in uppermost snow surface (wind-slab), minor (<5 cm thick) wind-slabs released when hopped on
Weather
11am to 4 pm Cloudy skies with some light (~5 mph) wind. Wind speed increased throughout the day. Snow below ~3000' was pristine with no wind-affect. Wind affect increased toward the top of the ridge.
Snow surface
Fresh powder down low turning into thicker wind-slabs up high.
Snowpack
See pit photo. Conducted ST, CT and ECT. Deeper snowpack 55 cm to the ground is essentially unmovable- took lots of effort to get it to move (jumping on it etc).
Figure 1. Snow pit dug on 12/28/19 at 2855' elevation on a N-NE aspect with 20 deg slope (61.20771, -149.44153) illustrating CT and ECT results.
Figure 2. Topographic map illustrating the location and aspect of the snow pit shown in Figure 1.