Feb 25, 2012, Blewett Pass Weak Layers

Ruling out backcountry turns due to the avi forecast, we found ourselves more in the mood for a flat tour then resort crowds. After much studying of slope overlays, we skied out fs road 800 for the first time following a track left by some hog loppet refugees. We are amateurs at snow science but I figured I would post a couple observations confirming that there is a scary weak layer out there.

We observed wind sculpted snow with ~10 inch shooting cracks  near the ridge and on south slopes and powder on sheltered N slopes. We also dug two pits in sheltered N facing spots and found 8 inches of low cohesion powder that failed cleanly on a crust about 20 cm down just under the shovel with no propagation and a second clean failure about 50 cm down that failed all the way across a 30x90cm column.

Stay safe out there.