Iron Mountain Snowpit

Location Name: 
Old Iron Mountain ski area
Region: 
Outside of the Forecast Area
Observation Date & Time: 
Wednesday, December 7, 2022 - 11:00
Location: 
38.637510, -120.211998
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  • MapBuilder Hybrid
  • Forest Service 2016
  • NAIP 2013
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Is this an Avalanche Observation?: 
No


Conditions Alerts:



Observation made by: Public

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Observation
Description of Snow, Weather, and Avalanche Conditions: 

I did a full tour of the Iron Mountain abandoned ski area ridge today looking for any evidence of avalanche activity, my inexperienced eye saw what might be an older slide buried by new snow on a roughly 45 degree slope.  I recorded some video of my observations (on YouTube, linked here), didn't hear any whumphing sounds at all, ski penetration was only a few inches.

I dug a pit at the top of old chair 5 where I chose to drop in, the persistent weak layer at the bottom was present, however it seems to be well buried under a pretty strong snowpack otherwise.  Compaction test was a CTH at 4 taps, I was surprised how sturdy the column held up to that point.  The whole area appears stable, and is mostly low angle terrain anyway.

While snowboarding I didn't seem to be sinking in too deep, felt like about a 10-12" Sierra Cement pow day at a resort, I don't think I'm impacting the snowpack very deeply at this time.  There is a farily thick rain/snow crust that seems to be supporting the powder above it, creating a bit of a buffer to another good layer below that, which sits on the weak base layer.

The video below is about 80% observations and pit.

Snowpack, Avalanche, Weather Videos: 

Iron Mountain Pit, Tour, avoiding avalanches with some chill riding.

Snowpit or crown profile photo or graph: 
Hide Snowpack Details
Total Snow Depth: 
120cm
Persistent Weak Layers: 
Buried
Hide Terrain Details
Terrain: elevations: 
Below Treeline
Terrain: aspects: 
N
Hide Weather Details
Elevation of Observation: 
7000 - 8000 ft.
Sky Cover: 
Few - Mostly Clear - up to 2/8 covered
Air temperature: 
Below Freezing
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