| Recent Avalanches? | Yes |
| Collapsing (Whumphing)? | No |
| Cracking (Shooting cracks)? | No |
Observation: Chugach State Park
Location: Two Bowls, South Fork of Eagle River
Standard up track up Two Bowls to see what impact the outflow (winds from the north) had on the snowpack and to monitor persistent weak layers at higher elevations- with extra focus on the facets at the base of the snowpack.
Obvious signs of instability
Observer Comments
There was a small (<D1) avalanche on the bowl directly NW of 2 Bowls. The avalanche appeared to be a wind slab caused naturally by a cornice fall from the ridge at ~4,350 feet.
Weather
Clear skies, temps between 23F-30F, no precip, occasional light breeze from the SE
Snow surface
The snow surface had a breakable (1-3cm) wind skin on most of our tour. Sastrugi was pronounced along the ridgetop and on highly wind-exposed areas.
On the majority of our ski down the breakable wind crust broke easily enough that you could have some pretty nice turns and access the powder underneath. However, there were a couple of surprise patches of either windboard or grabby crust where this was not the case, and the crust caught us off guard a little bit- but those patches were small and the bulk of the tour was nice snow.
Snow depth varied greatly on our tour from bare ground along the ridge to wind-deposited sections of over 8 feet.
Snowpack
We dug one snowpit. The information is below:
Location: Two Bowls
Elevation: 4,150'
Aspect: W
Slope: 32 degrees
Test results: ECTX, PST was 55/100 Arr on the basal facets layer
We found near-surface facets ~20 cm down from the snow surface. We found a thin, brittle melt-freeze crust ~30 cm down from the snow surface (with a thin layer of facets above the crust that we are monitoring). Neither of these layers had reactive test results, but we are watching these layers with persistent weak snow grains.
We also found facets at the base of the snowpack with developed facets/chained depth hoar. We did get PST 55/100 Arr on this layer.
We are continuing to see more of the same trend in the Front Range right now- poor structure, fair to good stability, and low propagation propensity.
Snowpit info
Ski down snow surface conditions
Near surface facet layer 20 cm down from the snow surface
Depth hoar found at the base of the snowpack
Depth hoar cup and facets found at the base of the snowpack
Snowpilot info