- Submitted by
- Craig Hartmetz
- Observations date
- Tuesday, December 22, 2020 at 16:30
- Location
- 52.962620° N 118.132130° W
- Reporting on
- Snow conditions
%2F-118.13213%2C52.96262%2C8%2C0%2C0%2F1026x200%3Faccess_token%3Dpk.eyJ1IjoiYXZhbGFuY2hlY2FuYWRhIiwiYSI6ImNqd2dvZmUxdzE4ZWg0M2tkaXpuNG95aTQifQ.pBLM87fE3sIxRJqJT7Bf7g&w=1200&q=75 "Victoria Cross Snowpack")
Quick
Avalanche
Snowpack
Weather
Incident
Information
- Is this a point observation or a summary of your day?
- Summary
- Elevation above sea level
- 2,000m
- Elevation band
- Below treeline
- Treeline
- Aspect
- E
- N
- NE
- Snowpack depth
- 125cm
- Did you observe whumpfing?
- No
- Did you observe cracking?
- No
- Foot penetration
- 58cm
- Ski penetration
- 18cm
- Snowpack test result
- Moderate
- Snowpack test fracture character
- Sudden (`pop` or `drop`)
- Snowpack test failure depth
- 33cm
- Surface conditions
- New snow
- Snowpack test failure layer crystal type
- Surface hoar
Comments
Observed the December 13th surface hoar partially-decomposed in exposed treeline locations, and well preserved in the below treeline glades/meadows. Completed test profiles on low angle terrain (22 - 24 degrees, travelling alone) at both treeline and below, which produced repeatable CTM sudden-planar failures on this layer, down 40 cm. Extended column test resulted in propagation on the N+1 load step, ECTP 15 (RP) down 42 cm.
This area has very little avalanche terrain in elevation bands that would be suspect of harbouring the December 13th SH layer. Alpine elevations showed obvious signs of significant wind effect, and no natural activity was observed.