| Recent Avalanches? | Yes |
| Collapsing (Whumphing)? | Yes |
| Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | No |
Observation: Chugach State Park
Location: Ship Creek
Quick afternoon tour to check on snow conditions in the Ship Creek Area.
We were surprised by the 8″+ of new powder on top, and disappointed by the ECT results.
The snow pack is very weak, and has a propagating weak layer under a slab.
We kept our slope angles below 30deg after our pit results
Obvious signs of instability
Observer Comments
We had several small whumphs while traversing in thin snow (45-65cm) on West through South aspects at elevation 2200-2400ft.
We did NOT have whumphing while climbing the slope that we dug on, which was surprising given the pit results.
We saw the avalanche reported on North Bowl right after it happened. Poor visibility made it hard to tell many details or get a photo.
Weather
Started snowing lightly at 1pm, increasing around 3pm.
Snowpack
We dug a pit at 2500ft, SE aspect, 20deg slope
Snow depth 100cm
100-80cm new dry powder, fist
80-65cm slab, 1 finger
65-45cm loose facets
45-0cm melt freeze crust, pencil
CT 4 at the new snow - slab interface
CT 7 SP at the facet - crust interface
ECTP 9 at the facet - crust interface
we dug a second column and repeated the test
ECTP 4 at the facet - crust interface
Pit profile
ECTP slab release