Recent Precipitation - up to 20" of new snow in the upper elevation of Tincan.
No other obvious signs were observed, but this amount of new snow is worth noting as a Redflag.
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Tincan to 2200'
Skinned and skied normal up track.
Observer Comments
Weather
Lightly snowing w/ broken skies at times
35F at 1000'
upper 20's F at 2200'
Rain/snow line was near 1000'
Winds were calm
Snow surface
Tincan:
1000' ~ 10" of wet new snow
1500' ~ 15" of unconsolidated new snow
2200' ~ 20" of unconsolidated new snow
Motorized lot had 8" of wet new snow
Sunburst parking lot only had 3" of wet new snow.
Snowpack
10" - 20" of new snow is sitting on a weak layer for faceted snow. This faceted snow is sitting on a crust at mid elevations.
Did numerous hand pits at several elevations with Easy results, however the slab was unconsolidated fell apart after it released.
Dug a pit at 2200' on a SW aspect. HS=170cm, 20" of new snow sitting on 6" of faceted snow on top of a Pencil hard crust. Test Results: ECTX x 2. The new snow was very loose (4 Finger to Fist Hard) and was sitting on a 4F hard facet layer. The new snow did not yet seem to have slab like properties.
*As this new snow settles it will like become more cohesive. Wind and/or warm temps could easily speed up this process making the new snow more 'slab' like. This is something to pay attention to since this new snow is sitting on a persistent weak layer of facets.
Skin track at Tincan after 10-20" of new snow.
Pit at 2200' on a SW aspect.
View of Seattle Ridge at 2:30pm