No slab development observed at Powderhouse

Location Name: 
Powderhouse
Region: 
Luther Pass Area (including Job and Freel)
Date and time of observation: 
Thu, 12/13/2012 - 13:30
Location Map: 
United States
38° 46' 59.52" N, 119° 58' 29.388" W
See map: Google Maps
US


Red Flags: 
Observation made by: Professional Observer
Snowpit Observations
More detailed information about the snowpack: 

Cold day with calm winds on Powderhouse led to no observable slab development. No wind loading and minimal settlement of storm snow.

Easy to initiate small loose dry activity on steep avalanche terrain to skiers' right of Powderhouse summit, and on steep terrain features in Powderhouse trees. When terrain features allowed, sluff would run a fair distance, but remained within storm snow and not on previous rain crust, and not sufficient to harm a person.

Pit and video: Just under Powderhouse ridge where most wind loading occurs here. Fist hard storm snow still not showing any slab like tendencies, supported by PST results on Dec 2nd faceted layer.

Snowpit or crown profile photo or graph: 
Any other comments about the observation or links to outside pages that have more info on the observation: 

Reasonable coverage down to Grass Lake, though light storm snow still hides many obstacles.

Weather Observations
Blowing Snow: 
No
Air temperature: 
Below Freezing
Wind Speed: 
Calm
Precipitation: 
None
Air temperature trend: 
Cooling
Wind Direction: 
Accumulation rate: 
None
More detailed information about the weather: 

Thin cloud cover increased shortly after noon, resulting in obvious temperature drop that lasted until our departure at 2:30pm.