Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
Snow levels around 6800’ this morning in the Mt Rose area, falling to 6000’ by noon. We were greeted by 6” of new snow at the parking area. Intense snowfall continued throughout the morning, with periods of S5, quickly refilling our tracks. Stepping off the skin track, it was obvious that the new snow was denser than the old snow underneath, as our tails kept sinking into the lower density layer. We dug a couple quick pits on an E and NE aspect at 9400’ to further investigate this layering. HS was 130-140cms of snow in this area. 35-40cms below the surface we found a F hard layer under 4f hardness snow. This appears to be the soft snow under yesterday’s wind transported snow, slightly below the new/old interface. This layer failed in CTs (CTM SC) but did not propagate in an ECT (ECTN 17). Given the rapid loading, we were concerned that this problem may become more reactive later in the day, particularly in wind loaded areas. It was a good reminder to stick to our plan of avoiding avalanche terrain. As we moved up to the ridge, winds increased out of the SW, and we experienced some cracking.