No obvious signs of instability. Visibility was poor so we were unable to see if there were recent avalanches and how much snow was transported by the wind.
Observation: Summit
Location: Tenderfoot
We toured up Tenderfoot to see how much snow had fallen from the storm and how well it was bonding to the Thanksgiving crust. We dug a pit at 2400’ and found the Thanksgiving crust to be 4” thick. We still have not been able to get above 3000’ to check how stable the snow is up high. We also were not able to see if there were any recent avalanches from the storm due to poor visibility.
Observer Comments
Weather
Steady snow all day that picked up as we were leaving. Valley winds were on and off from the East, but we did not see active loading. Towards the top of Tenderfoot winds had scoured some surfaces to the crust and in other place piled into 2’ drifts.
Snow surface
Snow surface was soft and sweet. Around 6” of new heavy snow at the parking lot. As we got to around 1800’ snow was a little lighter with 12” of snow above the crust. Some windloaded areas had as much as 18” of snow above the crust.
Snowpack
Some soft wind slabs were present but not reactive. The Thanksgiving crust did not give us alarming results from our stability tests (CTN, CT24 Q3). We found moist snow at the ground that did not produce concerning test results. The snowpack in our pit was right side up.
Poor Visability on the skin track up
Snow depositing behind tree as it gets blown.
Snowpit at 2400'