Juneau Area Avalanche Advisory
2005-11-08
Mt. Troy
by Bill Glude, SAAC Observer
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We found light rain to 500 - 600m today, slushy wet new snow right up to 700m, and a thin soft rime crust above. The thawing temperatures and drizzle are on 20cm of windloaded snow from the 7th over dry snow that turned to sugary early facets during the cool clear days on the 4th through 6th.

The heavier snow over facets was less sensitive than expected, apparently due to the thaw happening slowly enough to allow the snow to settle and bond over time and dissipate stress. The signs of instability today were new snow and a little SE windloading yesterday, a gentle thaw today, and localized cracking in wind drifted areas. On our test slope in the upper West Bowl of Mt. Troy, all three test blocks yielded moderately hard #5 (second harder jump) shears at Q3 (not clean or fast) on 38°. All three began to fracture at #4 (first gentle jump) but did not release until one more jump.

Snowcover was quite adequate. We skied right to the Eaglecrest parking lot, and found 65cm on the higher slopes. There are some wet spots developing, but most of them can be avoided. Snow quality was challenging, but it is settling rapidly and should form a good base over the next few days.
Field Notes
Photos
Trailbreaking today was brutally hard, with denser moist snow over light dry snow causing tips to dive and snow to cake heavily on both skins and ski tops. Turns were few. The good news is that the snow is rapidly settling into a good base, and coverage is already good enough to carefully ski to the Eaglecrest parking lot.
We got the test block set roughed in as daylight faded after the long slow slog to 760m elevation. Note bushes popping up out of the lower layers. The bushes may have skewed the test values toward the stronger side, but all blocks had identical results. The AK Block (AK), Cutback AK Block (CAK), and Rutschblock (RB) all began to fracture on the first gentle jump (#4) on 38°, but none actually slid until the second, harder jump (#5). All were Quality 3, not very clean or fast fractures, probably due to the bushes.
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