Quick report
The return to winter arrived slowly overnight, and we started out in heavy rain from the parking lot in the morning. This transitioned to snow around 4700ft, but it couldn't be described as cold, dry snow by any means. Winds were significant, but there wasn't much fresh snow to drift at these lower and middle elevations. All in all, it was nice to see the beginning of the storm, and it seems that with the cooling trend, we will have a favorable bond to the old snow surfaces. The soft surfaces were supportable to our skies, so travel conditions were mostly quite nice.
Older weak layers are moist, as is the upper snowpack, and these weak layers were reactive in snowpack tests. So this reactivity kept persistent slabs in our mind, and we didn't seek out any steep terrain.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Rain Elevation
- 4700ft
- Recent Snowfall
- 5cm
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
It was quite a windy and soggy day out there. Rain transitioned to wet snow around 4700ft on our climb up, but snow levels had dropped down to pass level (4000ft) by early afternoon. Precipitation rates were heavy, but accumulation wasn't impressive due to the warm temperatures.
Snowpack
Snow Surface Summary
Soggy and wet pretty much sums up most surfaces, even those that had seen a fresh snow. Below 4700ft, snow surfaces were moist old snow. Above 4700ft, 2-5cm of new snow had accumulated. In forested areas, there was minimal new snow accumulation, but the underlying crust was soft, making travel manageable or even pleasant where a bit of fresh snow had accumulated. Surfaces at all elevations where we traveled were supportable to skis, but not boots.
Snowpack Summary
The entire upper snowpack is wet, and the wetted weak layers were still reactive in snowpack tests. 5cm of moist new snow rests on moist, rounded grains sitting on the 3/5 crust, buried 13cm deep. Below this is a layer of 1F+ rounded grains from the late February storms. These rounded grains rest on faceted snow over the 2/8 crust buried 49cm deep. The 2/8 crust is weak and breakable. Below the 2/8 crust is 7cm of weak, faceted grains, over the 2/7 crust buried 62cm deep. This layer of faceted snow between the crusts produced propagating test results.
Snow Profiles
5300ft, NW aspect
Height of snow: 242cm
New snow: 5cm
3/5 melt freeze crust ↓13cm
2/13 surface hoar and faceted grains ↓32cm
2/8 melt freeze crust ↓49cm
2/7 melt freeze crust ↓62cm
ECTP 12 and ECTP 13 ↓56cm in faceted snow between the 2/7 and 2/8 crusts