Observation: Turnagain

Location: Tincan

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Started at the Tincan lot at noon in light rain with very light wind. From the
lot to below Common bowl at ~2600′ the snowpack is wet or moist to the ground.
The Oct. facet layer is moist enough for big snowballs to at least ~2600′ where
we turned around. Looking at this layer through a loupe the well developed
facet chains and depth hoar near the ground are still identifiable but moist-wet
and rounding. In the alders at about 1600′ I found some very large sfc hoar
crystals that are now quite moist. Snow was slightly more supportable in some
mid-elev areas than in others, but for the most part it’s still turning on
tundra through wet boot top snow that’s not very supportable at all (but seemed
to become slightly more supportable over the course of the day). I dug several
hand pits (to the ground) between 1600-2600′ with variable snow depth from
6-30″. I dug a couple hand pits on ~25 degree slopes with ~18-30″ of snow and
tried to isolate columns but they all failed while trying to isolate at the top
of the Oct. facet layer on well developed 2mm facets. Winds at 2600′ were still
light and unable to move any of the heavy snow being deposited that we could
see. Snow line was at ~1700′ mid day, lowering slightly by the time we left.
I’ll continue with the snow dance and pray our base of facets heals quickly.