Wind transport on Elephant's Hump

Wind transport (photo 1) of mostly snow on the ground combined with light snowfall from the sky was continuing to build wind slabs on top of wind slabs on N-NE-E aspects traveled in this area. Moderate SW winds in this area were below forecast speeds at mid day. Additional snow existed on the ground on windward aspects, available for transport. Most obvious signs of wind slab instability found in hand pits, traversing above previous tracks, etc showed instability within the top 10 cm of the snowpack, but wind slab layering on top of lower density snow was noted to 20 cm deep.

The Dec 13 rain crust was observed in this area at the noted lat/long (near treeline, N aspect, 8,680') approx 45-60 cm below the snow surface (photo 2). No associated collapsed surface hoar was observed underneath the crust. Without that associated surface hoar, snowpit tests indicated that propagation of failures along this crust were unlikely. Snowpit observations targeting the deeper, 20 cm thick Dec 10 rain crust at the same location indicated a small amount of faceting on top of the crust, but gave no indications of instability.