Observation: Broads Fork

Heavy Snowfall

Cracking

Collapsing

Poor Snowpack Structure

Just a quick note. The new snow was NOT bonding well to the paper-thin rime crust. The rime crust had facet stalagtites hanging from it when carefully picked up. We first dug a pit W-facing 35-degree test slope at 8200'. Total snow depth was only 125cm. After cleaning up the pit face I stuck my saw in and started a vertical cut. What happened next I've never seen. The whole new snow layer collapsed and slid, eggshelling the little slope above creating concentric circular cracks that extended about 20' up above the pit. It only slid about a centimeter, propagating across the whole pit face and slope, very cool to see. I've never seen a collapse failure that size while standing in a pit (before isolating any columns). Just above the groud the rain crust is still intact but basal facets wouldn't fail. We saw cracking and felt some big collapses. We initiated one tiny slab avalanche with a ski cut under a small convexity in irregular terrain. We wondered what would happen if we repeated the column test later after a few runs and the new snow again failed upon isolation of a column. It's interesting because the Wizard was across the way yesterday and said the new snow bonded well. That wasn't our experience today (spatial variability), so we were very careful about terrain choices and backcountry protocols. Great skiing!