Observation: Chugach State Park

Location: South Fork of Eagle River

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

We toured down the South Fork of Eagle River to explore some tree runs above the footbridge. We also were interested in checking on the wind slab that formed over this weekend’s strong winds and looking at the facets above the Thanksgiving crust layer.

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

11:45 am- overcast skies, no wind, snow flurries
1:15 pm- overcast skies, light wind from the northeast, light snowfall (less than 0.5 inch an hour)
2:30 pm- overcast skies, light wind from the northeast, light snowfall (less than 0.5 inch an hour)

Snow surface

The snow surface was not loaded in most places we toured. That being said, we stuck to terrain in wind-sheltered areas. Light, low-density snow over 12" deep for the majority of our tour. The snow depth still varied a lot from 1' of snow from the last storm to over 8 feet deep in some spots.

Snowpack

We dug snowpits at two different elevation bands. Below is the information we gathered from both pits. We did not see any propagation in any of our pits.

1st snowpit:
Height of Snow: 130cm
Location: South Fork of Eagle River
Elevation: 2,500'
Aspect: N
Slope: 20 degrees
Test results: ECTN12 (down 8" from snow surface, between the new snow and the wind slab), ECTN18 (down 16" from snow surface, between the wind slab and the near surface facets). Thanksgiving crust is down 34" and had no reactive snow test results.

2nd snowpit:
Height of Snow: 91 cm
Location: South Fork of Eagle River above footbridge
Elevation: 2,800'
Aspect: Northeast
Slope: 21 degrees
Test: ECTN26 (12" down, on windslab and near surface facet interface). Thanksgiving crust was 26" down from the snow surface and had no reactive snow test results.

Strength: Strong
Structure: Moderate
Energy: Low propagation propensity

Photos & Video
Please upload photos below. Maximum of 5 megabytes per image. Click here for help on resizing images. If you are having trouble uploading please email images separately to staff.