Tiny surface hoar growing above the treeline on Sunburst.
Very shallow (60 cm) snowpack with poor structure found above treeline on Sunburst.
Observation: Turnagain
Location: United States
AAS Level 1 class ventured through the alder bash to Sunburst treeline. The snowpack is pitifully
shallow – it helps us to remember how the snow seasons can vary each year even in the arctic
maritime snowpack. All the students had a chance to hear whoompfing and feel collapsing in
undisturbed snow, a great reminder of persistent weak layers in the current snow pack. Test
results confirmed the poor structure of the snow with consistent moderate results in both
compression tests and extended column tests. It is cool to observe propagation of the column in ECT
tests from an avalanche education point of view, but it does make us wonder about the looming
avalanche hazard coming with the next load.