Tahoe National Forest Sierra Avalanche Center

Snowpit dug in near treeline terrain.

Pit dug in early season, shallow snowpack. Near treeline terrain. Rain crust anchored/supported upwards by rocks, preventing collapse of the basal facet layer during the CT.

NTL terrain

Pit dug in full shade near treeline terrain.

We dug this pit above the crown of a skier triggered avalanche from yesterday. See this link for more details:https://www.sierraavalanchecenter.org/observation/2023/mar/24/0900/red-lake-peak

Crown line profile on a deep persistent slab avalanche that occurred sometime Tuesday night Feb 28. Weak faceted snow near a melt freeze crust was the failure layer that propagated 700' wide with cracks and slope failure another 300', and running downslope to train tracks 800'. This put 20 feet of avalanche debris on train tracks as per railroad avalanche forecaster.

Some NE wind affect on the snow surface.

Pit dug in near treeline terrain. Whumpf triggered by boot pen when stepping off skis to dig the pit.