Heavy snowfall began Sunday afternoon.
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Sunburst
Alaska Guide Collective’s level 1 avi course groups traveled on Sunburst, Tincan, Center Ridge and Eddies this weekend. Incoming snow today burying facets and surface hoar sitting on the melt-freeze crust is the main concern for the future.
Observer Comments
Weather
Sunday: overcast in the morning, light snow began mid day, heavy snow falling at a rate of nearly 1" an hour in the afternoon. Light winds. Single digits rising to the mid teens.
Snow surface
New snowfall is burying surface hoar sitting on an average of about 2" of facets that sits on a melt-freeze crust.
Crust consistency is variable without a noticeable pattern in our travels.
Snowpack
Out of the 30+ pits that were dug during the weekends course all but one had ECTX results. Just one pit on Sunburst, NW aspect at 2,000' had a result of ECTP21 down 25cm failing below the bottom most melt-freeze crust layer (this pit had 3 crust layers in the top 25cm).
Overall we observed a large variety of different melt-freeze layers in the top ~30cm of the snowpack.
3 thin melt-freeze crusts in this pit with 2" of facets on top and 5mm surface hoar (Saturday).
Several crust layers in the top 25cm of this pit. Facets and surface hoar on top were currently getting buried by new snow falling (Sunday).