Observation: South Mountain Glades

I toured into the South Mountain Glades. It was a bluebird sunny day with light north winds that were increasing through the day. New snow had settled to 10cm to 15 cm on top of a soft base. Lower elevation slopes had developed a thin breakable crust on friday and became wet by mid day. Upper elevation slopes were more exposed to the north winds and had developed soft wind crusts. The mid elevations were still cold and less effected by the wind and had very good skiing.

I dug a snow pit on sheltered NNE slope at ~10,700ft. A soft slab had formed from recent storms on top of weak facets and basal depth hoar. An extended column test produced an ECTP 21 failure in the depth hoar near the ground. The slab depth will generally bridge the weak basal layer but an avalanche could be triggered in a thin spot or an rea with larger air pockets below the snowpack. This makes for a scary-moderate avalanche hazard.