Polaris Point observations

We went Polaris Point this morning to have a look at the recent storm snow on top of the older Feb 14 near surface facet layer. Prior to the last storm, this area was one of the locations were we had observed some of the weakest near surface facets on open slopes below treeline. We knew that under areas of thicker forest canopy the weak layer of concern did not exist, giving us a safer route in and out of this area as needed.

On our ascent we stopped at 7,600', just downslope from the sites of snowpits from Feb 6 and Feb 17 in order to perform some propagation tests. In this area we had F hard, very loose and weak old near surface facets under a 1F- hard, 0.5 cm thick melt-freeze crust and about 15-20 cm of recent storm snow. The storm snow was F hard at the surface and 4F+ hard at the base. We got non-propagating results of ECTN-13 and PST 25/100 SF along the top of the facet layer, just below the crust at the base of the storm snow. It seemed that in this spot there wasn't quite enough new snow load to overwhelm the weak layer of concern.

Snowpit tests don't prove stability and the snowpack structure was poor so we continued to move cautiously around this terrain. We avoided the obvious avalanche start zones and wind loaded areas, seeking out areas under thick forest canopy where we needed it to travel slopes over 30-32 degrees and used the open slopes were we could get access to them from sub 30 degree terrain and the open slopes were not connected to steeper slopes above by continuous openings.

We did not trigger any whumphs, noticeable snowpack collapse, cracks, or other obvious signs of instability. We were also treading lightly in consequential terrain in an effort to avoid unplanned encounters with instability. While we saw not screaming signs of instability today, the poor snowpack structure in this area certainly holds the potential for persistent slab behavior in the future if it were to receive additional new snow loading in it's present state.