Temps in the twenties and calm to light winds. Mostly cloudy but with decent visibility.
Observation: Summit
Location: Tenderfoot
Toured up to treeline on Tenderfoot to get an updated look at the snowpack in Summit Lake area.
Weather
Snow surface
Soft snow on the surface with 3-5 mm surface hoar on top.
Snowpack
The snowpack at lower elevations is very weak. We stopped to investigate an old avalanche and sunk to the ground when we stepped out of our skis. Total snow height at 2000' on a NW aspect was 100 cm. Our compression test failed on isolation on a very concerning weak layer of depth hoar on the ground. There were also 3 layers of surface hoar in the upper 50 cm of the snowpack. The avalanche had failed on a large layer of surface hoar down 40 cm from the surface. Surprisingly only 1 our of 4 ECTs propagated.
Snowpack structure at remote triggered avalanche crown at 2000' on NW aspect.
Snowpack at 2600' was somewhat stronger but still about the same depth and had several weak layers of surface hoar, facets, and depth hoar.
Advanced facets or depth hoar at 2600' on NW aspect.
Still pretty thin coverage on the approach.
The partially filled in crown we investigated at 2000' on NW aspect from Jan 4th. Small remote trigger on a layer of buried surface hoar down 40 cm.