Tahoe National Forest Sierra Avalanche Center

Monitoring upper snowpack with forecasted storm this weekend.

Artificially 10-15cm loaded PST- APST 20/100 END @143cm after 30 minutes.

Pit dug in below treeline terrain protected from NE wind events. Old surface crusts below recent storm snow are variable throughout this terrain.

Pit dug in wind protected below treeline terrain specifically for a loaded PST on the surface facet layer. Using a 10 cm thick artificial slab constructed on the snow surface using disaggregated snow and allowed to sinter for 1.25 hrs, the tese scored Loaded PST 29/100 SF @ 133cm.

Loaded (10cm artificial slab) PST 30/100 SF @ 192 cm

Pit dug in below treeline terrain to look at upper snowpack faceting that exists at and below treeline on N aspects. Loaded PST with artificial 10cm slab added to snow surface and allowed to sinter for 30 min produced PST 40/100 SF at 140 cm. The majority of the data collection for this pit was performed by Daryl Teittinen with my assistance.

Pit dug in shaded near treeline terrain. Atypically shallow snowpack for the area at the current time.

The Jan 4 rain crust and near crust facets are thought to be unreactive in this area.