Observation: Turnagain

Location: Tincan Trees

Date:
Observer:
Route & General Observations

Saturday afternoon -> Sunday afternoon in the Tincan Trees

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

4-6" of additional inches of snow fell Saturday night over the 15-20" from the night before.
Intermittent light snow on Sunday.
Skies were generally overcast or obscured with the occasional blue sky overhead.
Temperatures in the high 20s to 32 degrees.
Light NE wind at treeline on Sunday.

Snow surface

20-24" of new, dense snow since Friday afternoon sits on top of the surface hoar/facets formed last week.

Right side up snowpack! Little evidence of wind affect at and below treeline; obscured skies made visual observations above treeline difficult.

Snowpack

Pit dug at 2200', SE aspect, 20 degree slope at treeline. Height of Snow = 200cm

20" of new snow (F -> 4 finger) sat over large 10mm surface hoar and ~6" of 4 finger facets that formed last week.

While the surface hoar is an easy to identify layer visually, it didn't react in shovel tilt tests. An Extended Column Test didn't propagate, but the recently buried facets failed under the shovel blade after 23 taps with a Q3/rough break fracture character. (ECTN 23 BRK 50cm down in the Dec. 20-24 SH/NSF combo)

Hand pits would fail under easy to moderate pressure, with the same break fracture characteristic observed in the ECT.