Snowpit in Underwood Bowl

Location Name: 
Underwood Bowl
Region: 
Bear Valley Area
Date and time of observation: 
Sat, 02/06/2010 - 12:55
Location Map: 
United States
38° 30' 20.9844" N, 120° 0' 5.1516" W
See map: Google Maps
US


Red Flags: 
Obvious avalanche path
Observation made by: Forecaster
Snowpit Observations
More detailed information about the snowpack: 

Very little evidence of instability observed while on tour in the area. Pit profile is for a wind loaded N aspect near treeline.

Cornices on N and E aspects were very weak, but caused no avalanche activity on slopes below when failure occurred. Evidence of previous natural cornice collapse and some slab failure on same slopes.

On a different slope, melt freeze crust at base of storm snow on E aspect near treeline at 8,280' gave inconsistent results in fracture propagation tests with 3x ECTN and 3x ECTP all in the same area. Dropping cornices pieces and ski cutting this E aspect  slope near the test pit yielded no results.

Snowpit or crown profile photo or graph: 
Snowpit videos (tests, etc): 

201000206 Underwood

Any other comments about the observation or links to outside pages that have more info on the observation: 

 

Weather Observations
Blowing Snow: 
Yes
Cloud Cover: 
100% of the sky covered by clouds
Air temperature: 
Below Freezing
Wind Speed: 
Moderate
Precipitation: 
Snow
Air temperature trend: 
Static
Wind Direction: 
South
Accumulation rate: 
Less than 1 in. per hour
More detailed information about the weather: