Pro Field Report

Basic Information

Observation Details

Observation Date:
February 10, 2023
Submitted:
February 11, 2023
Observer:
SAC - VandenBos, Peterson
Zone or Region:
Galena Summit and Eastern Mtns
Location:
Eagle Creek (6,300-10,300')

Signs of Unstable Snow

Recent Avalanches? 
None Observed
Cracking? 
None Experienced
Collapsing? 
None Experienced
No hard signs of instability.

Snow Stability

Stability Rating: 
Good
Confidence in Rating: 
Moderate
Stability Trend: 

Advanced Information

Weather Summary

Wind:
Light , W

Clear skies in the morning, with passing bands of high clouds increasing in the afternoon. Light to moderate winds blowing out of the W on exposed ridges.

Avalanche Observations

We could see a lot of terrain and did not observe any new avalanches.

Snowpack Observations

Dug on two sheltered NW aspects (7300' where HS=120-130, and 8700' where HS=140-150), looking at the character of the upper snowpack. 1/5 was identifiable in both pits, but were visually unimpressive. 1/5 (down 40cm) produced ECTNs in the mid to upper 20s in both pits. I found some SH fragments here that were not standing. These were mixed in with some small facets. I'd be surprised to see this combination produce avalanches in sheltered terrain.

The upper 10cm of the snowpack consisted of a thin layer cake of weak snow with no slab on top. These layers formed and were buried in the second half of January and first half of February. Most of this interval consisted of small facets with some SH flakes mixed in.

In the lower pit we dug down to 11/27 to check-in. We found this layer of large DHxr crystals down 90cm-100cm. Grains here are gradually loosing edges and striations and trending towards healing. I was able to produce an ECTP on this with very much non-standard loading steps (30+ hits from the shoulder, then a couple of stomps with a boot). Impacting this layer would be very difficult in sheltered terrain, but it is still driving the terrain I'm comfortable being in in this zone.

The extended wind event has had a big impact on surfaces in this zone. There are few generations of thin, aging hard slabs in lots of middle and upper elevation terrain. We traveled over many of these without experiencing any obvious signs of instability. Many of these slabs have already noticeably faceted.

Avalanche Problems

We did not encounter a clear wind slab problem, you would need the overlap of hard wind slabs with persistent weak layers underneath to produce a significant avalanche here. It did not get wam enough here to produce a significant sun-driven loose snow problem.