Observation: West Ridge, Amazon Basin

Observation Date

2/27/2026

Observer Name

Pagnucco

Region

Logan » Amazon Basin » West Ridge, Amazon Basin

Location Name or Route

Amazon Basin

Weather

Sky

Scattered

Wind Direction

West

Wind Speed

Moderate

Weather Comments

Windy in exposed terrain, but did not observe any snow movement/loading.

Snow Characteristics

Snow Characteristics Comments

It's hard to describe the surface snow right now, as it varies widely by elevation and aspect. We observed bullerproof crusted snow bw 7300-8000' on our ascent. From 8000-8700, the surface snow was rimed and felt like styrofoam. 8700-9000' was wind-ravaged and very firm. Lots of large graupel visible from Tues/Wed warm storm.

Red Flags

Poor Snowpack Structure

Red Flags Comments

Found lots of weak snow in our pit on E-facing 9000' slope, but it's under a solid 4-5" layer of dense storm snow and a few crusts that appear to be holding everything together. The Tues/Wed storm snow came in wet and warm and has capped everything with rain crusts, frozen/rime graupel crusts, and soft but thick graupel snow. We observed no red flags today.

Avalanche Problem #1

Problem

Persistent Weak Layer

Trend

Same

Problem #1 Comments

Old facets from January/February are still intact and still producing propagation. (ECTP24 at old/new interface)

Snow Profile

Aspect

East

Elevation

9,000'