Facets on Tamarack

Snow surfaces consisted of soft, wet, and sticky melt-freeze snow and frozen melt-freeze crusts that were sometimes supportable and sometimes breakable. On the north aspects, the snowpack consists of melt-freeze crusts with weaker snow sandwiched between the crusts. Much of the data collected in this area today indicated that these layers continue to gain strength, but that some isolated pockets of weakness remain. Snowpit tests targeting this weaker snow (old facet layers) show a great deal of variability. 5 out of 8 tests in various locations on N and NE aspects between 9400 and 9800 ft indicated that if this layer breaks, the resulting fracture could travel through this layer. Observations also indicated that any fractures that did start to propagate could not go very far before hitting rock, stump, log or other anchor that poked through the weak layer. 

Photo: Facets and rounding facets that are starting to clump together from the layer below 20cm in the snowpit.