Washington Snowpack:
http://www.alpinedescent.com/images/...echristmas.jpg
http://www.alpinedescent.com/images/LowerChance.jpg
http://www.alpinedescent.com/images/WestFace.jpg
http://www.alpinedescent.com/images/...rmoneAlley.jpg
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On Friday afternoon I dug up some depth hoar behind the king on Friday and ate a handful of it. Thanks for the very neat data.
Cmor - nice to run into you the otherday (think it was Xmas day). Good to see you were getting the chance to free ski.
If you had the time or inclination to add a commentary about what you're seeing happen to our snowpack, beyond the bare pit data, I know it'd be appreciated.
Well we started out in early December with a thin snowpack topped with a melt freeze crust. Due to our bitterly cold temps in the NW the crust has now completlly disintegrated along with all the snow beneath it, forming the depth hoar found on the ground. In most areas it is not giant cupped shaped grossness, but nonetheless is still Fist hardness.Quote:
Originally Posted by PNWbrit
On top of this early season snowfall we laid down a fairly stiff wind slabby layer formed from a moderate snowfall followed by a strong east wind event.
The reactive layer seen in the southeast snowpit from "skier left" and less so in the "west face" pit was formed on top of this, it may actually be a rimed up surface hoar layer, although in the pits its labeled as a low density new snow layer. Regardless it is a weak layer that has produced results and at Crystal is currently the only old weak layer with a decent bed surface. We laid down a couple feet of snow with subsequent storms on top of this(and counting), producing decent results on the 28th as noted in the SE(Chance Chutes) pit. However as of today, the 29th, compression tests revealed a much higher strength and lower energy associated with this weak layer. I don't expect it to persist.
In more general and perhaps more useful terms, until this week its been a thin cold year. The depth hoar is currently not well developed nor deep enough to create activity on the ground. However, the right bed surface(read grass) and/or big enough load could eventually cause failure. Its anyones guess as to how much water weight it would take. The only other weak layer noted is stabilizing in our area, but may linger in areas where it is more developed. It is worth digging to look at. Its fairly shallow and there is soft snow on top so a couple quick tests could be done in 5 minutes or so to see if its a layer to consider in your area. The large amount of new snow coming in with warming temps is going to put a lot of stress on the relatively weak snowpack, and deeper failures could result. Off the bat the new snow instability(instability within the last storm layer) should be freaky enough to keep you off steeper stuff, but as it settles out we'll see if anything below is stressed enough to start failing. But thats still a day or two away.
Thank you!..
Morining of 12/30 we did get at least one result on the SE weak layer, couple feet down. The new snow had moderate strength and energy, some 6-12+ inch results, nothing huge.
We picked up several more inches of water over the past several days along with a quick spike in freezing levels to about 5000 feet. This warm up layed down a decent bed surface for new snow instability, but the lack of cohesion in the top layer did not allow for significant propagation. We saw many large fast sluffs 3-12" deep but they did not put down much debris. By the end of yesterday, 1/3/08, these sluffs have all but disappeared. Despite starting with a weak snowpack, we also saw no deeper results associated with the increased load.
A caveat to my observations: We are starting to get widespread skier compaction in most areas and therefore our lack of results upon deeper layers should be taken with a grain of salt. However, to my knowledge no natural or skier triggered deep instability activity has been observed in our vicinity either.
If you have time, cmor, I'd appreciate some more analysis and comments after this big rain event for Tuesday/Wednesday.
-the guy with the dumb hat.
So far just spooging off of steeper faces,Quote:
Originally Posted by Buster Highmen
I saw one deeper release out in the bullion saddle, probably a couple feet deep, maybe 100-200 feet across. We haven't gotten the precip intensity of other areas due to a block.
thanks cmor. good shit. what do you think about this friday after all this rain?
We'll be hitting the reset button for most of Washington. With all the free water in the pack it will retain heat for a while after freezing levels drop but should be mostly locked up by Friday night. When that happens its time to start sharpening the ice skates.Quote:
Originally Posted by skiwa
At Crystal however we're a bit higher and have already picked up 13 inches of white mud at our upper plot. This new snow is going to be slabby junk and should all be locked in by then, but with the amount of water involved I wouldn't be too confident. We'll know soon enough.
NWAC forecasts 10k FL by Sunday. Hmmmm. What's says the Crustal ball?
I almost came up today, Friday, but 410 is still closed. Can you help my sour grapes?
no.......Quote:
Originally Posted by Buster Highmen
Damn...I'll bet the upper mountain is nice...20" @ 26F didn't sound too bad.Quote:
Originally Posted by cmor