Observation: Mirror Lake Corridor

Travels on the Mirror Lake Highway provide an excellent insight into the status of the alpine, precip favored terrain in the Uintas. After last night's loading event, the place was rather quiet: old activity could be observed near the top of Haystack, some new point releases were present, but the avalanche activity on the Mirror Lake Corridor is slim for now. A snow profile in an area of relative shelter reveals the clues: not only is the snowpack deep, with the weak layer having gained strength, but this weak layer was disrupted by wind in the alpine on some of the more prominent paths in the area anyways. In other words, the observed activity on Haystack fits the mold: add some shelter and things were more reactive last week, but at the moment, up high in favored areas, the weak layer is buried deep enough to not be as talkative as it was last week.

A variety of snow conditions could be observed, with the snow surface greenhousing in the morning. Even low angle norths were taking solar input (see attached photo of pole drag test on low angle N facing), and all but steep north had either a forming melt freeze crust, or a damp texture. Alpine acoustics were wonderful, however with the amount of water present.