Wet snow on Becker Ridge, all aspects.

Location Name: 
Becker Ridge
Region: 
Echo Summit Area
Date and time of observation: 
Mon, 04/07/2014 - 12:30
Location Map: 
United States
38° 49' 53.9364" N, 120° 3' 24.7572" W
See map: Google Maps
US


Red Flags: 
Rapid warming
Observation made by: Forecaster
Snowpit Observations
More detailed information about the snowpack: 

By 11 am, very little evidence of snow surface refreeze from last night remained in sun exposed areas. Heavily shaded pockets on southerly aspects held 10 cm of melt-freeze crust on top of 25 cm of residual wet snow from previous days of melt phase. On N aspects steeper than ~38 degrees, a 1 cm thick melt freeze crust remained on the snow surface. On most sun exposed N aspects, 10 cm of wet surface snow sat on top of stable recent storm snow, unaffected by melt-freeze. Small loose wet instabilities failing at the interface between wet and dry snow were very easy to human trigger in most areas (see videos).

Several small natural loose wet avalanches were observed from Hwy 89 on NE-E aspects on Flagpole Peak and Mt. Tallac, between 7,000' and 9,000'.

Video 1: Becker Ridge, N aspect, 7,990' (noted lat/long) - Skier triggered very small loose wet avalanche, roller balls, and pin wheels @ 12:30 pm.

Video 2: Becker Ridge, N aspect, ~7,600' - Ski cut triggers very small loose wet avalanche, roller balls and pin wheels @ 1 pm.

Snowpit videos (tests, etc): 

20140407 122442

20140407 130311

Weather Observations
Blowing Snow: 
No
Cloud Cover: 
Clear
Air temperature: 
Above Freezing
Wind Speed: 
Calm
Air temperature trend: 
Warming