Silver Peak Observations

We toured mainly N-NE aspect terrain on Silver Peak today assessing the Jan 29 buried surface hoar layer. In this area the Jan 29 layer is fairly small at less than 8 mm crystal size, buried 10 to 18 inches down, and well bonded into the snowpack. We dug hand pits in several locations, all of which produced either no shear on the Jan 29 layer or a hard, but planar shear. In two seperate locations where we were able to get planar shears we performed ECTs. Both produced ECTN results. In this zone the Jan 29 layer was already well bonded into the snowpack prior to the last storm so the lack of reactivity in this area today was not unexpected.

Warm air temperatures and the increasing amounts of incoming solar radiation are noticeable as we move further into the month of February. We noted 2 to 3 inches of wet surface snow at midday on open SE aspect terrain near 7,800'. Tossing some snowballs down this slope we were able to trigger additional rollerballs and some pinwheels.

We observed the debris from one small, several day old wind slab avalanche below a cornice on a NE aspect near treeline. No signs of unstable wind slab observed today.