Windy day at Indian Valley

Location Name: 
Indian Valley
Region: 
Ebbetts Pass Area
Date and time of observation: 
Sun, 02/26/2017 - 12:00
Location Map: 
United States
38° 35' 12.552" N, 119° 52' 41.286" W
See map: Google Maps
US


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

Winds were observed to be transporting snow upon our arrival in the morning, and continued throughout the day. New wind slab was consistently fragile and shallow. We avoided terrain more likely to have deeper wind deposition today.

Pic 1: Shovel tilts showed very clean and planar failures under the newest, thin wind slab. CTs and informal tests on snowmobile trenches revealed some deeper planar failures on older wind slab, but no signs of propagation were observed, including on several ECTs and slope cuts.

Pics 2 and 3: Consistent, shallow results from slope tests. These pictures were taken both hours and miles apart from each other, and were similar to other observations throughout the day.

Snowpack photos: 
Weather Observations
Blowing Snow: 
Yes
Cloud Cover: 
25% of the sky covered by clouds
Air temperature: 
Below Freezing
Wind Speed: 
Moderate
Precipitation: 
None
Air temperature trend: 
Static
Wind Direction: 
Southwest
Accumulation rate: 
None