I was skiing with 2 friends on The northeast shoulder of Commonwealth peak,
which is southeast of tent ridge, on saturday, January 29th.
Time: started at 10am finished at 5pm
temperature: -12 at 10am, -11 at 5pm
winds: calm all day. north winds were starting to move snow at 5pm as we
left.
Sky: was obscured (could not see mountaintops) for the majority of the day
New snow: 50cm of new snow. VERY low density.
elevation range: 1875m to 2280m
avalanches: we observed only small (o.5 to size 1) loose snow avalanches,
but as I say, viability was not good
Snowpack: above 2200m the 50cm of new snow was sitting on a hard temperature
crust. This crust was so hard that it was difficult to get purchase with
your skis for uptracking. You would instantly sink through the low density
storm snow and rest on the crust.
OF PARTICULAR NOTE: on west aspects above 2100m the storm snow was sitting
on top of a moist snowpack. The storm snow was dry, and the entire rest of
the snowpack to ground was moist. I dug to ground with my hand and could
make a moist snowball out of the depth hoar and facets with one squeeze. on
this west aspect we had numerous whoomps and settlements due to the moist
lower snow. This moist snow was so unconsolidated that I fell through to
ground numerous times.
after discovering this, we stuck to north aspects (where the moinst snow did
not exist) and enjoyed the best snow quality of my life with 50cm on top of
a supportive midpack in very low angled trees/glades.
snow stability was poor and will get worse if the area receives wind.
Very conservative terrain choices and elimination of overhead hazards were
critical to staying safe.
Hope this is useful information.
Cheers,
Neil Warren
ASG, CAA2, DHG
www.alpinethreadworks.com
_______________________________________________
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