Observations – Arctic Valley
Obvious signs of instability:
- Localized collapsing
- Prior wind-loading evident
Weather:
- Generally light SE winds with some moderate gusts
- Cloudy skies with some very light snow at times
- Temps in the 20s
Surface conditions:
- The good: supportable wind board and pockets of square powder (surface facets)
- The bad: breakable wind board
Snowpack discussion:
A few collapses in areas like this while climbing out of the NW Gordon Lyon bowl:
The above snowpack profiled and assessed:
Two ECTs failed with propagation on isolation (the second is pictured below):
The weak interface (bottom of facet layer on top of decomposing melt-freeze crust):
Peak 4 on Tuesday:
