Utah Avalanche Center

ECTP at 80 cm was result of 1+ hard layer on top of 4+ softer layer but no facets. There was a stripe in the pit wall of surface hoar and near surface facets and a crust, but this layer would not break. The bottom 50 cm of the pit was layers of mostly 1F and pencil hardness.

ECTP at 80 was result of 1+ hard layer on top of 4+ softer layer but not facets that conern me. There was a stripe in the pit wall of surface hoar and near surface facets and a crust but this layer would not break. The bottome 50 cm of the pit was layers of mostly 1 finger and Pencil hardness.

This was the weakest snow that I could find. Snowmobile tracks covered many slopes. Wind drifts were glued on and did not crack or move. Other shaded and sheltered slopes at a similar elevation show no signs of instability. Even sidehilling above other tracks did not produce cracks.

pit location had no wind loading, but wind loading was prevalent on all exposed aspects.

Only dug 85cm down.

Heavily wind loaded site. HOWEVER, we looked at many other locations at elevations above this and the facets found in our other pit above the very hard and thick ice/rain crust were not as faceted. The rain/ice crust was thinner and softer. Perhaps these two features correlate with each other. Additionally we could barely get that layer to break in tests.