Observations from Tamarack Peak

New snow amounts of around 40 cm in this area. Minimal evidence of significant wind slab instability observed in this area today. One tiny (size D1) skier triggered wind slab was observed on the far east ridge (see other observation). Storm snow was very right side up and the last 10 to 15 cm of storm snow appeared to have been deposited under light wind conditions. Skier triggered cracking was limited to cornices only and not any of the wind slabs below. Collapsing cornice pieces tended to entrain snow on the slope below in loose dry fashion. Any slab involvement was limited to the top 10 cm of the snowpack and propagated less that 1 m beyond the edge of the entrained snow. This matched well with NVDOT Gazex results which produced 10 cm crowns in the mitigated areas. (These results are only applicable to the backcountry snowpack because the failure occurred within the storm snow.)

The more interesting snowpack issue was found in snowpit work where a weak layer, likely to propagate fracture was observed on the underside of the rain crust that exists at the old/new snow interface. This rain crust was observed 40 to 50 cm below the snow surface all the way up to the summit of Tamarack Peak at 9,900'. Very repeatable ECTP results with RP (Q2) shear quality scoring in the 22 to 28 tap range.

Photo: Post ECTP result with rain crust visible along the lower portion of the back wall of the pit.