Public Field Report

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Today 1/22/22 a group of 6 of us toured around Camp Creek on Galena Peak. We dug a pit on a West facing aspect at 8,614ft on a 16-degree slope. In our observation, the snowpack measured 115cm. At this time we saw our persistent week layer from 12/11/21, which sat from the ground to 30cm. From then we found the new snow that we received in December, which accounted for 75cm of the snowpack. The new snow that fell on Thursday 1/20/22, accounted for the remaining 10 cm. We ran a simple density test and were able to observe in the newest layer we could use a fist, and moving down the column the snowpack became denser. By the bottom of the December snowpack, we could only use a pencil. However, when getting to the 12/11 layer, we found sugary faceted snow.

The second pit we dug showed persistent slab danger on N, NE 120-140 cm. We didn’t see any wind loading during our travels, and the sun didn’t warm the south faces as much as anticipated. However, we found better skiing on Northern and shaded aspects where they didn't have as much sun exposure. We also saw a lot of surface hoar throughout our day and our observations were constant with the forecast on SAC.