Observation: Douglas Island

Sun. Cold. Calm winds up to 2400ft in rescue meadows. Winds increased from the North with elevation.

Faceted new snow, small surface hoar in moist/sheltered areas lower down. All varieties of wind affected surfaces above 2700ft, but still pretty soft on top.

Weak snowpack structure. Multiple dense layers with heavily faceted interfaces, some sitting on top of crusts. Hand shears broke off upon isolation on the most substantial crust (40cms down at that location). Only a hundred feet higher (at 2600+ ft), I dug and found a thicker snowpack, with more space between crust layers, but still a melt-freeze crust layer that started about a meter above the ground and continued essentially to the ground. The interface between this major melt-freeze crust and the snow above was very faceted and the top of the crust was crumbling. An extended column test produced an ECTP13 down 70cms on this interface. I suspect one of the reasons that we are not seeing widespread avalanche activity on this layer is that the shear was not especially planar for an ECTP.

Also, saw some recent windslab from the outflow winds, but not as much as I would have expected given what it looked like on the mainland. I did not travel anywhere where the windslab showed any reactivity, but I also kept it pretty simple.