Observation: Turnagain

Location: Tincan

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Normal Tincan uptrack with a slight deviation to the SW at lower elevation (1500′) to dig in an undisturbed area and look for buried surface hoar. Then up to the top of Common Bowl 3200′

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)?No
Cracking (Shooting cracks)?No
Observer Comments

Small skier triggered storm slab from yesterday on a SW aspect at 2200' (chatted with skier that had triggered it. Small skier/rider triggered sluffing on steep roll in Common (ran over unusual ski track in middle of bowl). No cracking or collapsing observed.

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

Obscured in am with light snow falling, cleared around 2 pm and had some sunshine and good visibility
Calm winds
Temperatures in the teens

Snow surface

New snow! 1 inch new accumulation during the day. 8" Storm total

Snowpack

Top 5-8" of new snow was shearing in some hand pits and in pit at 2200'.
Dug two pits.
Pit #1 at 1500' HS: 130, SW aspect 25 degrees. Looking for the Jan. 13th buried surface hoar. Did not find it. There was a distinct line of the Jan 13th settled storm snow over facets. 45 cm below surface. 100 cm below surface was a distinct buried surface hoar layer (Dec. 15th), grains were still visible and 6-8mm. 120 below surface was 5 cm layer of facets sandwiched between 1F hard facets. Only test results were on the Dec. 15th buried surface hoar layer and only in Compression Tests. All results were from shoulder.

Pit # 2 at 2200' HS: 165 cm, height of pit 100 cm. SE aspects 25 degrees, 45cm snow from Jan. 13th until now. Consistent sheering under the top 15 cm of snow, CT 5, CT 7. Snow below was well bonded to the old wind crust below (5 cm pencil hard crust). We were getting test results in the small facets just below the wind crust (50 cm down). ECTP 28, CT 15, CT 27, CT 25 and also had an ECTX
No cracking or sluffing on any test rolls skiing down. A couple of hand pits on N side chute into Todds. No sheering under new snow.
Lower elevation breakable wind crust skiers right on lower Tincan Trees that was pronounced and unpleasant prior to the storm was covered by new snow and skiing well.

Photos & Video
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