Weather
• No precipitation • -13 °C • 5 m/s from SE ↖ • 95% clouds • First day with some clouds, relatively warmer weather in a few weeks. Small period with snow for about an hour earlier today.
Snow Cover
• No snowdrift • 1 cm • Some loose snow (1-10cm) • Dry • Some soft snow on the surface from earlier this morning. Snowpack seems similar on both sides of longyeardalen, a lot of rock exposed on ridges but deep in gullies.
Snow Profile
• NW • 2 tests connected to snow profile • Dug to 120, quite hard for the bottom half+ • Persistent weak layer: thin layer, below slab, near surface • 6 temperature points observed
Avalanche Problems
• Dry slab avalanche • Buried weak layer of faceted snow near surface • Within half a meter • The collapsing weak layer is thin < 3 cm. • Difficult to trigger • 2 - Medium • Some steep slopes N, W, NW
• Dry slab avalanche • Poor bonding between layers in wind deposited snow • Within half a meter • Easy to trigger • 1 - Small • Some steep slopes N, W, NW
Avalanche Danger Assessment
• Although the snow was reactive the propagation was poor or non existent so not probable for large avalanches. The problem earlier in the season with the persistent buried weak layer is buried deep under a hard layer of snow, so I would guess only possible to trigger with a large additional load on a spot with shallower snowpack. • There are some layers with poor bonding and a crust with a thin faceted layer underneath so important to watch the coming weather forecasted for Friday and Sunday. I will dig on a different aspect on Saturday to try and get a better overview of both sides of the valley. • 2 Moderate • Forecast correct