Snowpit and observations from Relay Peak

Location Name: 
Relay Peak
Region: 
Mount Rose Area
Date and time of observation: 
Fri, 11/13/2015 - 11:10
Location Map: 
United States
39° 18' 48.5208" N, 119° 56' 18.978" W
See map: Google Maps
US



Observation made by: Forecaster
Snowpit Observations
More detailed information about the snowpack: 

Definitely a tale of two snowpacks in this area. Solar aspects (E-S-W) were experiencing snow surface melt, were well settled and generally held shallow, poor coverage. Shaded N-NE aspects held 30-55 cm of fairly ski supportable snow with small amounts of faceting. There are still numerous barely covered rocks to hit in all but isolated areas.

Snowpit tests conducted today in an area void of wind slab (noted lat/long, N aspect, 9,740') did not reveal evidence of current instability. PST results (short cut length, slab fracture) pointed towards some amount of potential for avalanches to fail on old snow layers in the mid and lower portion of the snowpack under future loading conditions. Overall faceting amounts were less than snow temperature gradient would predict.

Snowpit or crown profile photo or graph: 
Weather Observations
Blowing Snow: 
No
Cloud Cover: 
Clear
Air temperature: 
Below Freezing
Wind Speed: 
Calm
Precipitation: 
None
Air temperature trend: 
Warming