# | Date | Location | Size | Type | Bed Sfc | Depth | Trigger | Photos | Details |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Dec 21, 2020 (+/- 1 day) |
N Copper N 8500ft |
D2 | SS-Soft Slab | N-Natural | Report |
Continued to observe evidence of widespread avalanche activity. Avalanches at all elevations and all aspects. Looked like north side of copper went early on in the storm, and the paths to the lookers left slid later on.
Yesterday's unfrozen wet snow at the surface (from rain) froze overnight and was buried today (12/22). 3-4cm new snow today at highway, 10-12cm at 8,600'. Crust is ski supportable in open areas away from trees above ~7,500', half-frozen trapdoor in the trees. Fortunately I was out after dark and everybody knows that moonlight makes crusts go away... ;)
Pit at 8,600' on ENE:
HS=70-80cm
Solstice rain crust down 10-12cm
12/11 facets down 40cm, still F to F- and dry for the upper 5cm, then F to F+ and damp to the ground. Looked like an irrregular 0-5cm layer of October snow here, but hard to tell thanks to rocky ground. Slab of snow from past 10 days is settled down to 30cm thick, 4F- at top, grading to 4F+ at base.
ECTNs in 4-8 range on IFrc
ECTNs in 18-21 range of 12/11 FCsf
CPST 32 and 35 SF down 40cm on 12/11
PST 35 to END on 12/11
Improving results in stability test scores were nice to see...but not changing my outlook on 12/11 interface. Keeping the eyes on what is important. The structure is terrible and it just created about as widespread of an avalanche cycle as you can get.
Finally, it seems we've introduced (and buried) a new player in the game...the solstice rain crust! I'm anticipating we will see some significant faceting adjacent to this crust and in the few inches of snow that fell on 12/22.