Observation:

Location: Tenderfoot

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Alaska Pacific University Snow Science class toured up to ~2200′ to look for the interactions of wet and dry snow in low angle terrain.

Red Flags
Red flags are simple visual clues that are a sign of potential avalanche danger. Please record any sign of red flags below.
Obvious signs of instability
Recent Avalanches?Yes
Collapsing (Whumphing)?Yes
Cracking (Shooting cracks)?Yes
Observer Comments

New debris observed in many of the avalanche paths along Turnagain Pass corridor (i.e Seattle Ridge south paths by Spokane Creek & Bertha Creek).
Significant whumphing while traveling uphill, we suspect caused by the collapsing of the large buried surface hoar mid-snowpack.
Some cracking on the surface, but less so in the afternoon when the storm snow became damper.

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

No rain observed! Intermittent snow (with some rime mixed in) with rate less than 1cm/hr, with 1-2 cm accumulation during our tour.
Air temps rose to mid40s.
Calm in the lower elevation trees, but winds were transporting snow higher up.

Snow surface

20 cm of new and settled storm snow was moist and globby.
Ski quality remained ok at treeline, but was getting grabby lower down.

Snowpack

Dug several pits ~2200' on N/NW aspect.
HS:130cm
Interesting dry snowpack layers to look at below the surface.
Identified two layers of concern:
1. facets below the most recent storms (ECTP8, ECTN7,
2. buried surface hoar @ ~50cm from top.(ECTP15, ECTP23, PST 38/100)