Glide cracks and glide avalanches on all aspects, with an impressive number of releases on north aspects of Tincan and Pyramid.
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Tincan - Below Todds Run
Tincan lot to the trail, then the trail around to the north side / up the flats below Todd’s Run
Observer Comments
Weather
Clear, temps in the 20s, calm except light SE winds above 2000'
Snow surface
Went to the north side of Tincan to see how things were faring out of the sun these days. The answer was... crusty! The snow line was near 1600'. 1600-1900': a nearly BOOT supportable rain crust over 5-10cm of melt freeze crust to the ground.
From 2000-2300': a 3-5cm thick supportable (on skis) melt freeze crust was on the surface, over 15-30cm of total snowpack. Boot penetration of 5-10cm, ski penetration of 0 - 2 cm. Pockets of faceted grains & surface hoar were on the crust surface, but nothing continuous across slopes (with the caveat that we didn't go high or see much terrain today!). Well developed runnels from 2000' to at least 2500' (maybe higher) in this sun-protected area.
Snowpack
Dug a quick hole to look at structure at 2300' on a shaded, north aspect below Todd's Run. A photo is below; at this elevation band/location, a 2-4cm layer of small facets have formed between the thick, supportable melt freeze crust on the surface and an even stouter melt freeze crust that makes up the remainder of the snowpack to the ground. This structure was consistently observed with ski pole probes in the area.
Also of note, the snowpack was dry from the surface to the ground, even at these low elevations. The area has frozen hard since the warm storm last weekend, with exposed dirt/grass remaining frozen even mid-afternoon in the parking lot!
Glide releases below CFR ridge on the north aspect of Tincan.
Impressive glide releases off Eddies, but none appear to be new since 10/15. A few new cracks seemed to have opened since that 10/15 observation photo.
Snow line on sunny side, with a few glide cracks present as well.
Tincan glide cracks, as previously reported! These looked similar to the 10/15 ob as well.
A sample of the stout, nearly boot supportable rain crust near 1600' in elevation
Extensive runnels up to at least 2500' in this area.
Snowpack structure in a hasty pit, as discussed above!