Home > Trip Reports > Dec 4 Cutthroat Drainage (Washington Pass)

Dec 4 Cutthroat Drainage (Washington Pass)

12/4/13
WA Cascades East Slopes North
3580
7
Posted by Jeff_Ward on 12/5/13 2:56am
We were out in the Cutthroat area yesterday.  The rain line from the late Nov. storm was somewhere around 6,000' to 6,500'.  The amount of new was 45 cms down low (5,000') and 60 cms at 7,000'.  Only recent avalanches observed were loose snow avalanches in steep cliffy terrain.  Ski quality was excellent but the overall depth could improve.  Average depth 80 cms at 6,000' and 110 at 7,000' on a south aspect. 
Thanks for the TR, and great pics.
I do have a question, just curious:  Why do you post snow depths with metric measurments, and elevation in US customary units?  Seems a bit odd...

author=BillK link=topic=29867.msg125271#msg125271 date=1386271989]
Thanks for the TR, and great pics.
I do have a question, just curious:  Why do you post snow depths with metric measurments, and elevation in US customary units?  Seems a bit odd...

Good question.  Most professionals in North America communicate this way.  Essentially everything below the snow surface gets measured in metric and everything above gets measured in imperial.  Crazy I know.  It would be great if we could communicate everything in metric but many of the tools we use (freezing level forecasts, map elevations, telemetry) use imperial units instead of metric.

The reason we don't use imperial for snow measurements is because all of our snow tools and tests are based on the metric system.  It would be a real pain in the ass to covert cm to inches every time I took a snow depth with my probe (not many, if any, probes have inches on them) and it would be hard for me to remember that an ECT is 35.4" x 11.8" instead of 90 cm x 30 cm. 

It would be nice if we could work in just one system but until we get everyone speaking the same language it will probably continue to be this super confusing system.  Maybe the first step would be to lobby the powers that be to change the telemetry to Celsius and Centimeters, but that might be viewed as "un 'merican" by some. 

Thanks for the info... Now that I think about it, I used to do the same.  When I worked as a patroller recently, our boss had us communicate everything to him in metric, even elevation of pits, etc.

That looks awesome!  Thanks for posting.

Stupid question: Since the road closed 12/3, how did you get there? Sno-mo or chopper or just a really long approach? :)

author=androolus link=topic=29867.msg125281#msg125281 date=1386282071]
Stupid question: Since the road closed 12/3, how did you get there? Sno-mo or chopper or just a really long approach? :)

snomo

author=Jeff_Ward link=topic=29867.msg125272#msg125272 date=1386274014">Maybe the first step would be to lobby the powers that be to change the telemetry to Celsius and Centimeters, but that might be viewed as "un 'merican" by some.


Dual-listing telemetry outputs (with fractional degrees C to preserve resolution) would be a nice, lossless step in that direction (and friendly to Canada). When considering questions of water and snow, using units that place 0 at the phase change makes sense.

I build and think in inches and feet, but when it comes time to get some science done, the metric system is unmatched.

Counterpoint

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Jeff_Ward
2013-12-05 10:56:48