Hi,
Went to Oboe Creek (E side of Flute) today with an AST course. We skied very heavy, sticky, snow from the top of Flute down.
Saw some pinwheeling but no actual naturals avalanches (it looked like the AM explosives control on Flute brought down a few Size 1-2 avalanches). I could not get any results ski cutting.
A pit at 1800m NE aspect on Flute gave an height of snow of 320cm.
We dug down 150cm and found: Surface was 1cm of wet grains.
Below that was 50cm of Fist - 4Finger density snow on top of the November 25 crust, which is 5cm thick here.
Under the Nov 25th crust is a consolidating pack of 1Finger to Pencil Plus density well rounded small crystals. The coldest temp in this warm pack was -1.5, about 1m down from the surface. Air temp then (2pm) was 1.0c .
We got an Easy Compression Test 20 cm down and a Moderate Compression test just below the Nov 25th Crust. Both where clean fractures.
A warm and moist, but chilly, day of skiing almost slush.
Dave Sarkany
SG