Observation: Turnagain

Location: Seattle Ridge

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

We toured up Seattle Ridge and skied a lap in Warmup (-1) Bowl. Surface conditions varied from recycled pow (facets) to breakable wind skins, to breakable crusts, to dust on thick supportable wind slabs. We dug a pit on a SW aspect near the top of Warmup bowl and did not see any concerning layers for now. The best skiing was on the front side on the way down at the end of the day.

We felt good enough about stability to ski steeper runs in Warmup Bowl and Repeat Offender, but we were taking our time to ski one at a time and picking smart zones to watch each other and regroup between laps.

Weather & Snow Characteristics
Please provide details to help us determine the weather and snowpack during the time this observation took place.
Weather

Mostly cloudy skies with high clouds. Dead calm and temps right around freezing. Colder in the parking lot in the morning than it was up high.

Snow surface

Variable. Everything from 6" of facets, breakable wind skins, breakable crust, to dust on supportable wind crusts. 2mm surface hoar up to around 1800'. Current surfaces make for decent skiing, but will be a concern with the next round of precip.

Snowpack

We dug on a SW aspect at 2930' on the back side of Seattle Ridge. The October facet layer was not concerning at all- the column I isolated for tests was frozen to the ground and actually pulled up some tundra and soil when I pried it out of the pit. The most concerning layer was a thin layer of facets below the Thanksgiving crust. I got one propagating result on this layer (ECTP21), but it did not have a whole lot of energy. It seems like this may be a concern with a big load on it sometime down the road, but was not very alarming today.

More pit info in attached photos.

Photos & Video
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