Observation: South Monitor Bowl

Heavy Snowfall

Wind Loading

Poor Snowpack Structure

I dug a pit about 5 feet deep to see how the wind slab was loading the thin snowpack and the rain crust. I did one column compression test. After ~5 taps from my wrist there was a break about 12" below the surface in the deep wind slab, at 11 taps (one from the elbow) the column failed easily at about 4 feet down at the rain crust. I actually think the surface failed at about 8-9 taps, but it didn't go until 11. Just an FYI about those deep wind pillows on steep northern slopes. We turned around and skied Neils Bowl into Willow fork where we couldn't get anything to fail. This was at about 10:30am before the bulk of the storm arrived.