Professional Observation

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Key Points

We toured up to 9000 feet on a northeast aspect to dig deep and look at the Valentine’s Day facet layer that is responsible for the current persistent slab problem. As it happens, we saw evidence of some of the day’s other avalanche problems as well.

• We cut across a wind-loaded feature and got shooting cracks above another ski track. We also ski-cut a small east-facing slope in the heat of the afternoon and got a small amount of wet snow to slide.
• We found the 2/14 facets buried 135 cm below a hard slab. The layer was dry. We got mixed test results, though one of our propagation saw tests did carry a fracture to the end of our column after cutting only a third of the way up the layer (PST END 54/150). See attached profile.
• I was very warm with temps well above freezing and snow surfaces getting moist except on slopes tilted to the north. We found a melt-freeze crust under about 4 inches of newer snow on all aspects up to 8800 feet, and higher on east and southeast slopes.