Observation: Turnagain

Route:
Tincan common up route to 3,600′ (Todd’s Bowl).

Weather:
Mostly clear skies with mid level clouds moving in from East. Light, but picking up slightly, Northeasterly winds on ridgeline. Temperatures in the mid 20’s on ridgetop. No precipitation.

Obvious Signs of Instability:
Recent avalanches – NO
Collapsing – NO
Cracking – NO

Snow surface conditions:
Surface hoar extends from valley bottoms to ridgetops (3-4 mm in size)
1,000-1,500′: very little snow (0″ – 6″ patchy). We hiked to 1,500′ – treacherous icy conditions….
1,500′ – 2,500′: 2-4″ of loose faceting snow over a 2-4″ supportable crust
2,500′ and above: 4-6″ of loose faceting snow over hard settled snow (pencil hard).

*The 4-6″ of loose faceting snow on the surface will be easily transported if winds kick up. Potential future wind slab issue.

Snowpack Obs:
We dug one snow pit near our high point in the start zone of Todd’s Bowl.
3,600′, N aspect, 46 degrees
ECTN 15 25cm down could not detect a hardness change (old wind slab, no propagation potential)

– One thin drizzle type crust 50cm down was found with no weak snow, shear potential or hardness changes surrounding it. Strong.

– Two .5cm thick crusts were found close together with a 2-4mm thick layer of rounded grains in between, 65cm down. Likely the crust from Jan 8 rain. After removing some snow under the shovel and several boot hard hits we finally made the block fail in the rounds between the crusts. It did not propagate. There was not a temperature gradient surrounding any of the crusts. All great signs pointing to a stable snowpack.

Bottom Line: We found stable snow conditions and great boot top ski conditions above 2,500′ !!