Observations from Pickett

Location Name: 
Pickett Peak
Region: 
Luther Pass Area (including Job and Freel)
Date and time of observation: 
Wed, 03/03/2010 - 12:30
Location Map: 
United States
38° 44' 51.072" N, 119° 54' 15.984" W
US


Red Flags: 
Recent avalanche activity
Whumphing noises, shooting cracks, or collapsing
Recent loading by new snow, wind, or rain
Obvious avalanche path

Observation made by: Professional Observer
Snowpit Observations
More detailed information about the snowpack: 

3 weak interfaces observed today:

Photo: Shooting crack after dropping cornice. Cornice drop (behind me in this picture) resulted in 3/2 snow sliding on bed surface formed by 2/28 and 3/1 warm weather. Fracture propagated 15ft and debris ran 20ft (about as far as this terrain feature would allow).

Video 1: ECTP3 Q2 on interface between new snow and 3/2 snow at 25cm. 40 degree slope, N aspect, 8300ft.

Video 2: ECTP2 Q2 on same interface.

The layer formed by 2/28 and 3/1 warm weather rests on softer snow - informal hand shear tests performed after ECTs showed easy shears, and the whole 90cm column pulled off Q2 x2.

25cm new (wind loaded) on 5cm 3/2 snow, on 5cm 2/28 3/1 layer, on softer 2/27 and earlier snow.

Cornice just downslope of test slope had broken naturally just before our arrival and caused slab fracture at 25cm - same interface as ECT fractures, but 5cm shallower than fractures caused by artificial cornice dropping.

Snowpack photos: 
Any other comments about the observation or links to outside pages that have more info on the observation: 

 

Weather Observations
Blowing Snow: 
Yes
Cloud Cover: 
100% of the sky covered by clouds
Air temperature: 
Below Freezing
Wind Speed: 
Moderate
Precipitation: 
Snow
Air temperature trend: 
Static
Wind Direction: 
South
Accumulation rate: 
Less than 1 in. per hour
More detailed information about the weather: 

S1 precip increased to S2 and winds decreased to light at ~1PM