Professional Observation

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Snow Stability

Key Points

The AIARE Pro 1 is in town so we are spending a lot of time looking at terrain, hazards and snow profiles with little skiing.  It is great to have such a dynamic group of professionals engaged on the course.  During our time in the snow profiles we are grappling with all the things that practitioners do: How do I get square pit walls? What grain type is this exactly?  Which snowpack test is right for the conditions?

Below is a snow profile and a few photos to supplement key bullet points.

• The snowpack is deep.  We were actually able to probe to the ground today from the bottom of our snow profile. 350cm !!!
• The new snow from Sunday in to Monday fell on a variety of surfaces including, crusts, facets and surface hoar.  The variability and relative strength(or lack of strength) of these underlying layers lends itself to uncertainty and a need for terrain margins even in low danger.
• Warming today was muted by some thin cloud and light, cold winds from the North and East.
• Settlement cones are everywhere.  Some are massive and hanging in trees.  Underneath these, the treewells are cavernous.
• Heading into good or very good stability there are still some question marks out there.  Keep your head in the game.