Digging Snow Pits

Finally getting some snow up here.  Yesterday we went up to Monarch Pass to dig a few snow pits to look at the different layers and assess avalanche potential.

The day was bright and clear when we showed up, but the forecast called for snow starting at around 11am.

Monarch would have a good day as the lot had 6 vehicles in it when we arrived, but by 2 pm it was jammed with overflow parking from the ski area about a mile down the pass to the north.

It was going to be careful selection as to where to go once we were up there as the Avalanche Forecast was in the "considerable to high" range in all aspects. Only one rating high and that is "extreme". As I mention later that area above the road sign on the right side of the picture slide later in the day.

After talking through it we decided to head up to a ridge line running SE to NE on the west side of Highway 50. Thats is going from the center of this picture to the right.

There had been about 2 feet of new snow, so the walk up would be a slog, but we needed to stay out of the obvious danger areas as much as possible.

In fact when we came down about 2pm the banks above Marlys head and next to the highway in the background had slide.

By the way that is not bad focus on Mt. Shavano & Tabegauche in the background, that is snow being blown off by the winds.

We had a number of "whoops" near the top of the ridge which are caused when an underlying layer collapses, very bad sign.

We stuck to protected areas except for on 50' traverse about 100' up from the highway. Very much a one person at a time with a look out. BTW that is Marlys right in the middle of the traverse.

The pits where about 4 feet deep, to reach ground. We dug a couple to try some different tests (Isolated Column and Rutschblock) ICT slid at the layer just above Craig's head (guy in the middle using a magnifier to look at the snow). The propagation test needed two people to trigger (25 degree slope), but went right to the ground.

These pits were quite a bit shallower then the 9' pit from 2 years ago. Didn't even know there were trees  here when we started to dig the pit. That's me in the red.

The snow started as forecast at 11am and we got about 4" by the time we made it back to vehicles at 2:45pm. Lucky for us we weren't in the wind that was observable on the mountains around us as it was forecast to be in the 20-30mph range with gusts to 60mph. Again that area to the left of the highway between the two trees in the foreground slide during the day.

For those of you who have been through Monarch Pass that is the cafe/tourist store under the snow just above the cars in the lot. Needless to say it isn't open in the winter and in heavy snow years it kinda disappears completely.

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