Professional Observation - Boundary Creek, Northern GNP

Location Name: 
Professional Observation - Upper Boundary Creek, Northern GNP
Region: 
Outside of the Advisory Area
Date and time of observation: 
Tue, 01/12/2016 - 14:00
Location Map: 

Red Flags: 
Whumphing noises, shooting cracks, or collapsing
Recent loading by new snow, wind, or rain
Observation made by: Professional Observer
Snowpit Observations
More detailed information about the snowpack: 

6500'. 140 degrees, 32 degree slope, HS 185, -4 C air.  Looking for buried surface hoar near the surface and what the recent wind slab was doing.  Throughout the day we consistently found a buried surface hoar layer (2-4mm) between 5 and 20cm down depending on how much wind loading had occurred recently.  We observed shooting cracks along the skin tracks in areas of fresh wind slab which also pulled out easily in ski cuts on small convex rolls.  The weak layer was the interface between the buried surface hoar and the  wind slab. 

CT4-6 on the surface hoar layer.

We found variable snow conditions from decent (consolidated) skiing to fully supportive sun crust (rather poor skiing) on steeper open southerly aspects.  Most aspects were considerably wind affected.  Ski conditions were challenging due to high variability between snow conditions in short distances (think every turn). 

 

 

Weather Observations
Blowing Snow: 
Yes
Cloud Cover: 
75% of the sky covered by clouds
Air temperature: 
Below Freezing
Wind Speed: 
Moderate (Small trees sway)
Precipitation: 
Snow
Air temperature trend: 
Warming
Wind Direction: 
Southwest
Accumulation rate: 
Less than 1 in. per hour
More detailed information about the weather: 

Winds increasing throughtout the day along with warming trend.  West/southwest winds.  significant snow being transported.

Activity: 
Skiing
Precip Rate: 
S -1; very light snowfall, trace to 0.5cm/hour