From email: Dug a pit on a NW aspect near the bottom of Lick Creek. Saw sugary facets 50 cm down from the surface of the snow. Perfromed an ECT and got ECTX.
Toured up to the east face of Mt. Blackmore today. We observed two small natural loose dry avalanches occurring right around noon on the new/old snow interface at about 9700' on the E aspect. The largest one ran about 200 feet down into the bowl.
We observed a hollow snowpack on our ascent and dug a pit at 9600' just below the northeast ridge. We found several weak layers that were fracturing beneath two well-defined crusts. We got a CT2 @ 135cm, CT11 @ 130cm, CT13 @ 118cm, and CT15 @ 115cm; in our extended column test we got ECTP15 Q2 @ 130cm.
From observation: "Toured up to the east face of Mt. Blackmore today. We observed two small natural loose dry avalanches occurring right around noon on the new/old snow interface at about 9700' on the E aspect. The largest one ran about 200 feet down into the bowl.
We observed a hollow snowpack on our ascent and dug a pit at 9600' just below the northeast ridge. We found several weak layers that were fracturing beneath two well-defined crusts. We got a CT2 @ 135cm, CT11 @ 130cm, CT13 @ 118cm, and CT15 @ 115cm; in our extended column test we got ECTP15 Q2 @ 130cm."
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Toured up to the east face of Mt. Blackmore today. We observed two small natural loose dry avalanches occurring right around noon on the new/old snow interface at about 9700' on the E aspect. The largest one ran about 200 feet down into the bowl.
We observed a hollow snowpack on our ascent and dug a pit at 9600' just below the northeast ridge. We found several weak layers that were fracturing beneath two well-defined crusts. We got a CT2 @ 135cm, CT11 @ 130cm, CT13 @ 118cm, and CT15 @ 115cm; in our extended column test we got ECTP15 Q2 @ 130cm.
On the way back to Lionhead. Came upon this recent avalanche. Rushed up to the group of 4 guys. They were fine, not the guys who set it off. The group of 6 we passed going there set it off. The group of 4 said they saw these guys ... all on the hill at same time, stuck and climbing around the stuck guy. All were okay but I hear one guy was shaken up. 4-5ft deep at break by 200-300ft wide, ran 400+ft.
Today we toured up above Blackmore Lake to ski a E-NE facing meadow. We observed about 5-10cm of fresh snow in the area with minimal wind loading. On South aspects, the recent sun crust was much more supportable than in more shaded and protected areas. There was evidence of past wind loading at our pit location, which was on a slightly more north-facing ridge than the meadow we skied. Although this recent crust was evident on all aspects, it was quite soft and breakable on protected aspects. An ECT test revealed instability above a crust layer at 130cm in the snowpack (ECTN22@130). The shear quality was clean at this interface and, when the shovel was placed behind the block, it popped off quite easily. With the significant temperature shifts adding some complexity to the snowpack, it will be interesting to see how the stability progresses at these crust interfaces.
Toured into middle basin and middle peak today. 5-6 inches of new snow. Temps in the high 20s. Wind E and NE - moderate at ridge top. No obvious signs of instability throughout the tour. S1 graupel falling at 1430.
