Snowpack Tests on Relay Peak

We covered some ground in the Relay Peak area and Tamarack Peak area today looking at the old faceted snow buried near the base of the snowpack on multiple aspects, elevations and locations. 

At N39.318889 W-119.919228 at 9665', East aspect, on Tamarack Peak near a snowprofile that was done a few days ago.  Faceted snow was present near the base of the snowpack above basal ice.  Multiple PST's did not show that propagation was likely at this location at this time.  This area had seen previous wind scouring with a total snowpack depth of 1-1.5'.

Downslope at N39.319163 W-119.918390 at 9551', East aspect in a more wind protected area had snow depths of 2-2.5'.  Again, the faceted layer did not seem as reactive as seen on North aspects in this area.  3 PST's showed that propagation was not likely.

In the Relay Peak area at N39.318861 W-119.944619 at 9918', East aspect, showed a shallow snowpack of just over 2'.  PST's in this area resulted in slab fracture results that did not indicate propagation was likely.

On a North aspect in the Relay Peak area at N39.317013 W-119.941423 at 9711', snowpack depth was 3-4' deep.  Snow was very dense and wind compacted.  A PST 27/100 END down 75cm on the buried facet layer above basal ice.  This result, less than a 50% cut length, indicates that propagation is possible if the weak layer could be triggered.

What was observed today matched up with previous observations throughout the Mt. Rose area.  East aspects have a shallower snowpack and the faceted layer/slab combo is not as problematic at this point.  North aspects above 9300' in the Mt. Rose area continue to be a concern for a persistent slab avalanche problem as additional loading occurrs.