New Year, New Week Layer?

Location Name: 
WMR Backcountry
Observation date: 
Monday, December 30, 2019 - 12:30
Is this an Avalanche Observation: 
No
Observation made by: Public

Tabs

Quick Observation
  • Seeking blower from last week atop a firm crust layer, we traveled into the Southern Whitefish Range from the resort. We were also interested in learning more about early-season crusts, as well as the prevalence of surface hoar.
  • The morning began with an inversion, and we started noticing newly formed surface hoar once we broke through the cloud at about 6,500 feet.
  • To check out the early season crust lineup, we dug a pit on the shoulder of Peak 6895, at 6,720 feet, about 50 feet below the ridge, on a 37 degree S/SE slope. The pack depth was 129 cm. We measured ~1 cm of surface hoar on top of 14 cm of unconsolidated snow. That later of fluff was sitting on a melt-freeze crust about 8 cm thick. Below this fat crust, there was a layer cake of semi-homogeneous early-season crusts. We conducted an ECT and had no failure. The snow on top of the melt-freeze crust is still pretty unconsolidated—while skiing, we did experience small sluffs as has been reported elsewhere in the region.
  • After the ECT, we did hasty shovel shear test, and got the upper 90cm of the pack to pop out on a planar interface.
  • Overall, skiing was not shabby where the top crust was smooth, and we’re curious to see what happens to the snow on top of the melt-freeze crust in the coming days and weeks. Hopefully the new surface hoar doesn't become the next "fill-in-the-blank-holiday" weak layer.
Snowpack, Avalanche, Weather Images: 
Travel Details
Region: 
Whitefish Range - Southern (south of Coal Creek)
Activity: 
Skiing
Snowpack Details
Snowpack and Weather Details: 
Hide Terrain
Elevation of observation: 
Above 6500 ft
Aspect(s) of observation: 
SE
S
SW
Persistent Weak Layers: 
Surface Hoar
Facets or Faceted Crust
On the surface
Buried
Total Snow Depth: 
129
Wind Speed: 
Calm (No air motion)
Sky Cover: 
Partly Cloudy (SCT)