Observations from Mt. Judah

We toured on Mt. Judah this morning to have a look at the buried graupel and surface hoar layers prior to tomorrow's storm. We did snowpit work in three locations on NE and E aspect near treeline terrain. In all three areas snowpit tests (ECT, PST, CT) did not reveal signs of instability on the graupel or SH layers

In one isolated area of shaded E aspect near treeline terrain, we were able to trigger cracking and slab failures 6 to 8 inches deep on a buried graupel layer. This occurred only where the slab had been previously undercut. We performed an informal RB and triggered whole block failure with a single jump. This was the only evidence of instability we saw in this area today. We skied and ski cut some approx 40 degree NE aspect terrain adjacent to this slab failure spot with no results.

We encountered sun crust and melt freeze crust in all of the low angle areas we traveled and all nearly all of the W aspect terrain that we traveled today.

Kicking at the most recent new cornice formation off of the ends of large cornices in this area triggered minimal cornice failures and only very shallow dry loose avalanches on the slopes below.