Observation: Turnagain

1130 at Tincan pullout: no precipitation, obscured skies, 16 degrees, calm wind
1400 at 2200': very light precipitation, fog, 16 degrees, calm wind
1615 at Tincan pullout: no precipitation, obscured skies, 16 degrees, calm wind
1630 driving past Eddies pullout: light snow, obscured skies, calm wind

Approximately 4" of very light density snow blanketed the landscape from the meadows at Tincan pullout all the way to our highpoint at 2200'.

The 4" of light density snow sits on top of a stout melt freeze crust at lower elevations and is not bonding well at all. At Hamburger Hill at 2000' the 4" of new snow sits on top of ~4" of buried near surface facets over a stout and slick melt freeze crust. This new snow and buried near surface facets are not bonding well.

Our snowpit at 2200' showed fist hard snow sitting over the stout melt freeze crust, and layers of pencil to knife hard snow below the crust. We found the most recently buried surface hoar layer, buried Jan. 21. The snow below the crust was moist and quite blue in our pit wall, as shown in a photo below. We did not conduct a CT or ECT, however, we utilized the shovel shear to identify both the Jan. 11 buried surface hoar and New Years buried surface hoar. Both layers required moderate force in the shovel shear and sheared clean on the buried surface hoar. These layers were not of concern at this pit location as they sit beneath the stout melt freeze crust.