Stormy weather. Heavy snowfall, wind and rain below 1,100'.
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Tincan Trees
Tour up to treeline along the common up-track.
Observer Comments
Weather
Obscured skies made for poor visibility to assess any natural avalanche activity.
Light to moderate snowfall above 1,100' and light rain below'.
Moderate easterly winds at treeline.
Snow surface
New moist snow (wet snow below 1,100').
Although the snow was moist, it was also very low density for the top few feet and had a 'bottomless' character.
New snow from the past 24-hours was roughly 12-14", difficult to assess the different storm interfaces.
Snowpack
Dug one pit 6-7' deep at 2,100' on a West aspect.
Total storm snow depth (starting Mar 8 till now, Mar 16) was 5' of settled snow.
We performed an unconventional stability test on a mid-storm layer that sits roughly 4' below the surface. This layer is a ~1cm melt-freeze crust with a thin layer of weak snow on top. We dug out an ECT column 50cm thick above the layer - ECTP 21 breaking in the thin layer of weak snow above the crust.
Snow pit at 2,100'
A look at all the storm snow from the past week!
Deep moist snow at the mid-elevations
Unconventional stability test mentioned above. The block can be seen in the middle of the pit wall.