Observation: Hatcher Pass

Location: Stair Step

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Toured up stair step with the goal of observing any natural avalanches, and to check out how the most recent snow is affecting the snowpack.

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

Approximately 6" of new snow from the last storm. Light winds from the west and warm temps today.

Snow surface

Snow surface was a mixed bag today. Dense moist snow near tree line that made some nice snowballs. Above 2200' the snow appeared to lower in density and a thin fragile crust could be felt 10-15cm from the surface. Near ridge tops thin wind slabs could be felt that were 1-2" thick. New snow behaved like a slab for most of the the tour. A thin crust on the surface could be felt during the descent.

Snowpack

We dug on a NW aspect at 3200'. The snowpack had poor structure in this location, moderate strength and low propagation potential. We had no propagation in our ECT and did not observe any cracking or collapsing during out tour. The drizzle crust was buried 60cm in the location and only failed in CTs with moderate to hard force.

HS 190
3200' 25° NW

CTE PC 10cm from surface density change in new snow.
CTM RP 25cm old NSF
ECTN12 25cm old NSF

Photos & Video
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