Red Mountain

Posted March 10th, 2010 by joshf

Location

United States
37° 31' 47.1864" N, 118° 43' 57.6516" W
Date and time of observation: 
March 2, 2010 - 1:28pm
Region: 
McGee Creek Area
Observation Type: 
Snowpack
Route: 

From Aspen Springs up NE facing trees to top of Red Mountain, back down.

Weather Observations
More detailed information about the weather: 

Cloudy with light snowfall.  Calm winds except for at ridge line where winds were blowing moderately from the SW. 

Snowpack & Snowpit Observations
Information about the snowpack/snowpit: 

Overall shallow snow pack from just over 2 feet at lowest elevations to about 1.5 meters higher up in non-wind loaded spots.  Skiers skiing red mtn 2 days ago reported widespread wumphing.  Today, I heard only 1 wumph at about 8500', and this was while following established skin track.  Dug pit in this area (see attached profile).  Layer of greatest concern is 40cm down which was obvious older snow/newer snow interface.  Thin denser layer(1 finger) ontop of fist hard snow.  ECTP12Q1 at this interface.  Although the base of snow pack here is still rotten, it appears to be strengthening and based on the test results in this one limited location is becoming less of a concern.  Hard to say if the woomphing heard was from this layer 40cm down or from the basal layer.  I'm guessing that it was from the basal layer, and that perhaps the underlying bushy terrain is playing a factor?    
      Dug another test pit around 10,500', NNE facing, 28 degree slope.  This pit revealed:
-145 cm total snow depth
-CT18Q1 85cm above ground.
-CT20Q1 85cm above ground
-ECTP21Q1.5 85cm above ground
-All of these tests failed below a 2-4cm wind crust on a  8-10cm layer of weak faceted snow.  On top of this crust was ~15cm 1 finger hardness snow, with 25cm of fist hard snow above that.  Below the weak layer was 1 finger hardness snow down at least 40cm (max depth dug to).  Probing revealed 40cm of weak rotten snow at bottom of snow pack. 
These clean Q1 quality shears, along with the fact that the fractures propogated with the ECT test, and at least 4 out of 5 lemons (perhaps even 5 ... I didn't look at grain size) definitely raises concern about this snow pack structure.  If the slope were greater than 35 degrees, based on the information from this one pit, I don't think I would feel comfortable skiing it.  Needless to say I stayed away from the steep upper sections of the bowls, which were being windloaded presently, and I'm sure previously as well.  I did ski ridge between gullies, and threw some ski cuts on the tops of the few steeper convex rolls with no results. 

Pit Profiles & Snowpack Photos: 
Comments: 

  Be cautious of steeper terrain while touring in this sub-region with its relatively shallow snow pack and suspect structure.

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