Public Field Report

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Today we skied on the Stanley Basin side of Galena Pass. It was warmer than expected. Leaving Ketchum at 1100 it was about 14 F and when we parked on the pass it was 24 F with overcast skies and a calm wind. On our tour up the ridge we experienced widespread collapsing and isolated cracking in some spots. We skied a SW aspect with a slope angle of about 20 degrees. About a quarter of the way down we found a thinner snow pack with a wind crust on top and cross loaded wind slabs . After digging 2 hasty pits we found the snow depth to be 55cm to 70cm. We saw a pencil hard slab around 20cm thick on top of faceted snow. The bottom 30cm had 3 crust layers in it with snow that was 4 fingers to fist hardness. Hard dense slab on top of soft weak snow.