The National Weather Service Forecasts-

TODAY...DECREASING CLOUDS. TEMPERATURES STEADY NEAR 29 IN THE
MORNING...THEN FALLING THROUGH THE DAY. NEAR DOWNTOWN JUNEAU AND DOUGLAS AND NORTHWEST OF AUKE BAY...NORTH WIND 10 TO 20 MPH. LIGHT WINDS ELSEWHERE.

TONIGHT...MOSTLY CLEAR. COLDER. LOWS 2 TO 11. NORTHEAST WIND 5 TO 15 MPH.

WEDNESDAY...INCREASING CLOUDS. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SNOW IN THE
AFTERNOON. HIGHS AROUND 19. NORTHEAST WIND 10 MPH.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT...SNOW. LOWS 13 TO 19. EAST WIND 5 TO 15 MPH.

Temperatures have been fairly consistent over the last few days.

We received a little new snow Saturday night and a little more snow Sunday into yesterday.

Winds were active during this snowfall event leaving wind deposits on N-NNW Facing Slopes.

With no new snow overnight and light to moderate winds Avalanche Danger is LOW today.

We may see some windloading into our urban starting zones today into tomorrow. This could elevate avalanche danger slightly.

The current new snow has bonded fairly well to the old snow surface yet there is still weakness further down in the pack from last weeks big storm event on facets followed by a rain event.

It would probably take a fair amount of additional load to trigger this deeper instability but as new snow comes in later this week we will want to re-evaluate these lower weak layers to see if they could become reactive once again.

It looks to be a nice day out there. Get out and enjoy!

There is a free avalanche awareness course this Saturday at Eaglecrest from 9am-330pm. This course includes basic snowpack stability testing and companion rescue skills.

To Sign Up Contact [email protected]

Simple Snowpit Tests:

For almost all of these snowpit tests you need to be on a slope of at least 30 degrees in steepness. The optimum steepness is 38 degrees since that's the most dangerous slope steepness for slab avalanches. Finally, use a snow saw, which makes all these test go much faster, but you can get by without one in a pinch.

The times listed for these snowpit tests don't include the time of digging the hole. Most snowpits in reasonably soft snow, with a good shovel and on a steep slope take only a couple minutes. For very hard snow it may take twice that time. So you can add a couple minutes to the times listed for digging a hole.

Compression Test:

I love this test (and its cousin, the stuff block test). Besides the Rutschblock test, it's about the only one I do anymore. It's quick, easy to interpret and works for most kinds of weak layers. Start by isolating a column about the same size as the blade of your shovel, in other words, about one foot by one foot (30 x 30 cm). Be sure to completely isolate the column. Then take the blade of the shovel and lay it flat on top. Finally start tapping progressively harder on the shovel blade until the column fails. Start with ten taps by articulating from your wrist, then ten more taps by articulating from your elbow, then ten more from your shoulder using the full weight of your arm. Don?t push your arm into the snow, but let it fall with its own weight. In this way, the test is somewhat quantifiable. In other words it doesn't depend on ?feel? or the opinion of the tester, but it has a reproducible number which is more or less same for most people and can easily be communicated to others. For instance, it failed on an easy tap from the elbow, or it failed on a moderate tap from the elbow or perhaps a hard tap from the shoulder. Since snow stability is dependent on the size of the trigger required to make it fail, this test is especially easy to interpret. Of course, if you have an unusually light arm or an unusually heavy one, you need to take that into account.