Recent Avalanches? | No |
Collapsing (Whumphing)? | No |
Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | Yes |
Tincan uptrack to treeline
Recent Avalanches? | No |
Collapsing (Whumphing)? | No |
Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | Yes |
On steeper rolls we were betting wide shooting cracks, about 20+ feet in each direction. The cracks were about 6" deep, and were running on a change in density within the new snow.
Overcast to whiteout conditions. Rain/snow mix at the parking lot switching to all snow at about 1500'. Light to moderate snowfall throughout the day with calm winds.
About 12" of new snow at 1500'. Below there there was a rain crust on the surface that was partially melted. The wet new snow at lower elevations was very gloppy on our skins and skis.
We mostly just dug hand pits and worked our way to as many steep test rolls as we could. In areas that had seen wind during the snowfall we found some loaded pockets up to 2' deep that were touchy and producing long shooting cracks.
Structure of the new snow layers. The crystal card is on top of the New Years crust with about 6" of low density new snow on top that fell while temperatures were cold during the beginning of the storm , and another 6" of storm snow above that which was much denser and more cohesive.
Shooting crack on a wind loaded steeper roll near Tincan treeline. We had shooting cracks like this on most of the steep rolls we tested.