Snow Profile: Snowbasin Backcountry 12/6/2009

Submitted/Updated:
Tue 12/08/2009 - 5:40 am
Submitted by:
Doug Wewer

Elevation: 
9200'
Aspect: 
Northeast
Comments: 

Found up to 2 feet of new snow on NE to N aspects above 8,800 feet.  The snowpack consisted mostly of weak snow, crusts and SH (see pit profile).  I didn't pick it up in the pit, but there was a large, solid (Pencil to Knife hard) lens of snow in the middle of the cirque, up to 8-10" thick in places.  There's a fair amount of dirt and other organic debris in this layer too.  It sounds like other areas lack this solid wind crust, but are very rotten.  Bottom Line is this snowpack around Snowbasin seems to be quite variable with a mix of crusts and very weak snow.

 
I tried to do some compression tests in the snow pit, but the crusts were so weak, that I couldn't really get a clean pit, no matter how hard I tried.  I finally gave up.  I did get an easy shovel shear and a little pop from the new snow at the buried SH layer.
Snow Profile Image: 
2009.12.06.MB.Cirque.jpg
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