Wet Surface Snow on Andesite Ridge

A shallow and weak snowpack exists where ever there is snowcover in this area. Several layers of facets are stacked one on top of another and the entire pack is soft and unconsolidated. Tests showed weak snow that failed easily when weight. At this time the snowpack  remains stable simply because there is no slab resting on top of the weak layers in this area.

On the surface a few inches of wet sticky snow did exist. Ski cuts on test slopes caused this wet layer of snow to separate from the facets below and slide down hill. These wet snow sluffs would also entrain some of the drier snow below. These sluffs remained small and did not involve too much snow in this area today.

Overall this snowpack data and observations indicate that adding a new snow load to this snowpack will cause it to fail and avalanches will likely result especially on the NW-N-NE aspects in near and below treeline terrain that currently hold the most consistent snow cover.

Photo: A small skier-trigger loose wet snow slide.

Video: Overview of Andesite Peak showing the scoured above treeline terrain and the snow cover in near and below treeline terrain.