Observation: Turnagain

Location: Tincan

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Quick tour to Tincan trees to check out recent avalanche activity and assess how reactive 1/10 buried surface hoar layer is.

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

We had several collapses on the 1/10 buried surface hoar from 1400 - 1800'.

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

Mostly cloudy in the morning and then obscured cloud cover in the afternoon. Winds and snowfall also picked up in the afternoon.

Snow surface

A small layer of surface hoar on the surface on top of about a foot of soft new snow.

Snowpack

We dug pits in two locations in the treeline elevation band (1400' and 1900') and found a layer of buried surface hoar 60-70 cm deep in both locations. At our lower pit we triggered several collapses in the area and had propagation in several extended columns tests with 12-13 taps. Our compression test also failed on 12 taps and had a sudden collapse in the surface hoar layer. These were remarkably consistent results which is probably due to the soft slab on top with fist to four finger hand hardness.

Photos & Video
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