Low density new snow at Black Butte

Cool, calm morning on our approach to Black Butte. New snow heights varied from 6-12" and remained very unconsolidated. Kicking test slopes produced sluffing within the storm snow, with minimal cracking observed. By our departure shortly after noon, sunny slopes were beginning to get a thin wet layer at the surface.

At the meadow below Black Butte, I checked for buried surface hoar in between the new and old snow. I couldn't find any, and I suspect the meadow gets too much sun for previous surface hoar to have remained intact prior to the storm. On more shaded slopes above the meadow, instead of surface hoar I found facets above the crust at the new/old interface.

Shovel tilts along our approach showed a reactive weak layer within the storm snow. This same layer produced Sudden Collapse results as soon as I lightly put my shovel onto Compression Test columns - somewhat unusual for storm snow but the results were repeatable and consistent with other obs. However, the snow above this was very unconsolidated and not slab-like. An ECT produced partial propagation on this same layer.

The crust/facet combo in old snow also produced Sudden Collapse results on Compression Tests, but an ECT did not propagate. This will be worth monitoring once the storm snow settles and becomes more slab-like, and/or new loads are added.

Pic 1: Small surface hoar on the surface, widespread on our approach but on our departure no longer observable on sunny slopes.

Pic 2: Not enough new snow for the route to Meiss to be tempting yet. Due to shallow snow, we were careful today to mostly travel over road surfaces until we could get to where the new snow was on top of a base.

Pic 3: Sluffing on test slopes.

Pic 4: A few places had very limited cracking. This is in cold, unconsolidated snow and not the result of a breakable crust.

Pic 5: Concerning crust/facet combo is easy to see in my snowpit wall.