Near June Lake

Expecting the avalanche danger to decrease throughout the day as snowfall and winds diminished, we avoided the elevated hazard this morning by touring on low-angle slopes below treeline with no overhead hazards.

• Trap door, upside-down storm snow was difficult to skin through.
• We got propagation in our snow pit, on the last tap, in softer storm snow under stiffer surface snow. We got localized cracking in the denser surface snow, especially where winds had stiffened it.

Localized and isolated cracking in settled or recently drifted snow below treeline.

The recent snow is very upside-down and breaking trail was difficult as we repeatedly fell through the trap door.

The snow surface was soft in sheltered areas (4F) and stiffer where strong winds had penetrated openings in the trees (1F). On most slopes where we traveled this is the first real snow cover this season and we often got stuck in sage brush hidden just under the surface. Snow depth in scoured areas ranged from 1-1.5 ft. In drifted areas, the snow depth ranged from 2 feet to 3.5 feet.

We dug on a northerly aspect at about 8900 feet and got propagation with hard force in our extended column test about 1.5 feet deep in the storm snow. There is still depth hoar at the ground. Some of it is rounding and it is broken up by ground anchors at this elevation. The depth hoar is capped by 2 hard melt-freeze crusts.