Observations from Jake's Peak

Location Name: 
Jake's Peak
Region: 
West Shore Area
Date and time of observation: 
Sun, 02/21/2010 - 15:00
Location Map: 
United States
38° 57' 58.536" N, 120° 6' 59.112" W
See map: Google Maps
US


Red Flags: 
Recent loading by new snow, wind, or rain
Obvious avalanche path
Observation made by: Professional Observer
Snowpit Observations
More detailed information about the snowpack: 

Between 7000ft and 7500ft, distinct hard potential bed surface on NE slopes in the trees, but insufficent slab development. Test slopes produced no results.

 

Photo 1: steep, wind loaded test slope at 7800ft, when we began encountering 5cm wind slab on top of 10-20cm new snow. No results. It was also at this elevation that potential bed surface became less distinct.

 

Photo 2: several tracks on steep, wind loaded NE slope just below the summit of Jake's. 2x ECTN on untracked adjacent slope. Easy to moderate progressive compression. Still only 2cm of wind lab on new snow at this location.

 

Video (given lat/long coordinates): 3x ECTP11 Q1 @30cm on PPs immediately above old snow. 40 degree slope, N aspect. Thicker, more supportive wind slab. This slope had much more wind loading than others observed. We chose not to descend this aspect.

 

No cracking or whumphing throughout day. I was unable to find yesterday's graupel layer. Typical Sunday crowd at Jake's, with no signs of instability from several tracks observed. ECTPs were incongruent with all other observations, but we chose to avoid further exposure in this area.

Snowpack photos: 
Any other comments about the observation or links to outside pages that have more info on the observation: 

 

Weather Observations
Blowing Snow: 
Yes
Air temperature: 
Below Freezing
Wind Speed: 
Light
Precipitation: 
Air temperature trend: 
Static
Wind Direction: 
Southwest
Accumulation rate: 
More detailed information about the weather: 

Luther Pass and Carson Range appeared to be receiving precip throughout the day.