When the surface snow was undercut by a skin track, making parallel tracks upslope created 1m long cracks off of ski tips, up to 20cm deep. No reactivity without first undercutting the slopes.
Observation: Douglas Island
Location: Eaglecrest West Bowl, Second Hump Along Ptarmigan to Ridge Traverse (Big Shot)
Spend the day skiing at Eaglecrest, Bear Trap, Heavenly Valley, West Bowl. Dug a profile at 2600′ on a western aspect above West Bowl. Location is “Big Shot” which is the second knoll along the traverse from the Eagle’s Nest to the Ridge. Is moderately loaded, less scoured, and rarely skied. Had some interesting results.
In general, we did not observe avalanches or signs of instability, but the upside-down nature of the snow surface kept us out of high consequence terrain and skiing defensively. Surface snow had potential, but was resistant to our traffic. Folks were jumping on a lot of steep rolls out West all day and we did not see them have any activity in the new snow.
Observer Comments
Weather
Broken skies, calm winds, warm temps, nil precip (S-1 briefly in the AM)
Snow surface
1-2cms of new snow on a thin crust. Below the thin crust was a well-settled layer of new snow (1F) above a lower density layer of preserved new snow (4F).
Snowpack
See full observation in the picture of my snow profile. High variability in the area due to recent winds and swings in temperature. Wind loaded areas will look a lot different to places repeatedly scoured or below 1800'.
On a West Aspect at 2600 feet.
CT2 RP @95cm at density change/inverse density
CT11 RP @85cm on a thin crust
CT28 SP @41cm, facets on "super crust"
ECTN2 @95cm
ECTN12 @85cm
ECTP31 @41cm (Yeah I know but it could have easily been #30 1 foot over, significant result)
Profile
Snow in pit (taken on the sunny side for picture's sake)
Pit location
IMG_2038
IMG_2037
IMG_2013
Thick layer of facets above the "super crust" 40cm above the ground