Mountain snow survey

Approaching the summit through beech forests

Today our party had to work hard to climb up to a peak at 610m elevation to do snow survey. Initially we climbed up through cedar plantation, then we emerged into the deciduous forests of the upper mountain slopes covered by oak and then beech. Our objective is to measure the snowpack at high elevation during late winter to early spring when the snowpack amount reaches a maximum for the season.

View of the upper reaches of the Takiya River Basin from 610m elevation

This data is extremely valuable for use in calibrating snow models for the Takiya River Basin. A regular snow survey was conducted as well as a snow pit sampling analysis which gives the changes in snow density at 10cm intervals from the snow surface down to the base of the snowpack. As much as possible, we also monitor air temperature in the high elevations by attaching temperature loggers to trees at the 610m peak.

Summit of the 610m peak - our survey point for today

At the summit, snow depths ranged from 152 to 191cm, with snow densities of 0.42 compared to water. Therefore the snow water equivalent (SWE) was between 64 and 80cm. Three years ago in 2011 we had a relatively heavy snow year with an average snow depth of 240cm and SWE of 106cm at the same point, so we can see that this year is a relatively light snow year. Still it is hard work to dig out the snow pit in even 170cm depth of snow!