Quick report
South winds were moving enough snow to build surface wind slabs. Toured on E-SE aspects from 3,000-5,300ft and had a little bit of everything, from hot to cold, sunny to overcast, and thick to thin areas of snowpack. Stayed where to snow was deep and consistent and avoided shallow areas near rocks and cliffs, where we would be more likely to trigger a slide from.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 23
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- light
- Recent Snowfall
- 5-10
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Slight clearing near three guardsmen most of the day, sunny or overcast then evening fog. Lights south winds with warmest temperatures out of the wind in the sun.
Snowpack
There is a lot of spatial variability at the pass with areas of snowpack that are very thick and much thinner. The new snow looks caked on the mountains with no observed recent natural avalanche activity. Still was able to find areas of poor structure and persistent weak layers near the ground. Above 3,500ft the surface snow stayed cold and preserved but had warmed up below that elevation to the road by late afternoon.
Dug a few quick pits and found:
- 10-15cm wind slab where there had been previous wind loading
- 6-8mm depth hoar near shallow ridgelines and rocks under a slab
- No propagation in a consolidated area at 4,5000ft with HS100cm ECTX