Solid group from Westminster College Level 1 today. Travel was along west ridge of Peak 10420. Here is the summary of what our group found:
- Three distinct weaknesses in the top 50-60 cms (20-24") of the snowpack. Very easy to isolate the weakness with shovel tilt as we were getting clean, resistant-planar shears.
- Extended column tests were getting collapses of the weak layers, but no propagation of the slab.
- Snowpack felt "rightside up" as it progressed from F-hard snow at the surface to 1F snow just above the facets at the ground. The faceted layer at the ground ranged from F to 4F hard.
- Traveling into terrain with wind loading we were finding very shallow, sensitive wind drifts by mid-day on aspects being loaded from the W/SW winds.
Overall we felt the hazard was Moderate in mid-elevations, and Considerable in upper elevations with wind loading.
