No shooting cracks or collapsing in areas that were being rapidly loaded. We sought out the most unstable snow on our ascent and were unable to find any reactive snow.
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Sunburst
Sunburst up to 3,400′
Observer Comments
Weather
Obscured skies
Intermittent snow showers, increasing in intensity after 3pm
Rain/Snow line ~ 800’
Mild temps
Moderate to strong winds out of the E/NE
Snow surface
Active wind transport of snow along ridgelines occurred throughout the day. Snow accumulation and wind has created pockets of upside down slabs up to 3’ thick.
Wet snow surface up to 2,500'
~6” of new snow sitting on a 2” moist crust @ 2,500’
12-16” slab sitting on a thin sun crust on W and S aspects 3,000-3,400’
Ski cuts around 2,500’ on steep slopes produced no sluffing or avalanches
Snowpack
Pits @ 3,200’ (SW) and 3,400’ (S) showed good bonding between newest storm slabs and underlying crusts. No propagation in any tests with some failure within storm snow layers.
Brief "sucker holes" allowed us to get into the Alpine today
Winds were moderate to strong out of the ENE along Sunburst ridge, loading leeward slopes. Despite this loading we found the new slabs to be unreactive.
Snow showers/squalls and poor visibility was the norm today
Tests showed slabs in the 12-18" range to be well bonded to underlying crusts
A quick stop at the DOT lot on the way home; snowing hard at 4pm at 1,000'