Professional Observation - Going-to-Sun-Road Avalanche Program, GNP

Location Name: 
Professional Observation - Going-to-Sun-Road Avalanche Program, GNP
Region: 
Outside of the Advisory Area
Date and time of observation: 
Wed, 04/06/2016 - 11:32
Location Map: 

Red Flags: 
Recent loading by new snow, wind, or rain
Obvious avalanche path
Observation made by: Forecaster
Snowpit Observations
More detailed information about the snowpack: 

No recent avalanche activity. Through the fog caught glimpes of some some old  debris piles, up to size D2 in uppper Granite Path. Debris partly composed of med-large blocks - looked more like glide or slab debris as opposed to wet loose.  Could not see through fog to figure out happened.

Snow depths from the 4/5 storm totalled about 15-30 cm above 5500 feet. New wind slabs, 50-150 cm thick, were quite stubborn or totally unreactive to ski cuts on small test slopes.  At elevations above 5000 ft, the pre-April 5 surface is now a stout 5-10+ cm thick melt-freeze crust that is supportable.

Snowpit dug at 6200 ft on a W aspect in top 1.5 m of snowpack revealed 30 cm of new snow from 4/5 storm sitting on top of melt-freeze crust, CT 20 on this interface.  Stability tests also yielded mod-hard results on two more older layers 50 and 70 cm down from the surface, CT23, ECTN14 and CT25, ECTN26 respectively.  These two deeper layers that fractured were composed of softer grains and had more liquid water present compared to the adjacent layers.

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

Obscured skies with steady light to moderate SW-S winds above 5500 ft with very light snowfall and sub-freezing temperatures.  Cloud ceiling was starting to lift at 1300 as the weather began to improve.

Activity: 
Skiing
Precip Rate: 
S -1; very light snowfall, trace to 0.5cm/hour