Two small collapses on old windslabs. Winds began to increase around 1:30pm with wind transport beginning to occur.
Observation: Hatcher Pass
Location: Thousand Dollar Run
Toured to the top of Hatch Peak to investigate ski quality and to see how reactive buried persistent weak layers might be.
Observer Comments
Weather
Fishhook parking lot @ 10:00am: 0 Fahrenheit, calm winds, and no precipitation, clear sky.
3800' Thousand dollar run @ 11:00am: 5 Fahrenheit, light winds, no precipitation, clear sky.
4500' Hatch Peak @ 1:00pm: 6 Fahrenheit, NE winds light to moderate, no precipitation, clear sky.
Snow surface
Snow surface was a mixed bag. Low density powder, crusts, and winds slabs were found. Leeward features held low density snow with some wind effect. New winds slabs 2" thick could be found in some areas, but were only 4F in hardness. Near ridge tops what appeared to be a thin rime crust could be found in some areas. Sasturigi and wind erosion could be found near ridge tops. From the summit of hatch peak most slopes appeared to be cross loaded.
Snowpack
Overall the snowpack seems to have poor structure, moderate strength, and low propagation potential. Two sets of ECTS were performed with no propagation. On the second round of tests some snow from the slab was removed to see if any propagation would occur.
Thousand Dollar run
3800' East, 24 Degree slope
HS 160
ECTN7 20cm decomposing fragments
ECTN14 50cm density change wind packed rounds
PST 75/100 END 90cm down on January facets
Skyscraper Ridge
Skiers tracks from skyscraper
valley of sin
Cornices