Quick report
Blustery day with relentless winds estimated to be 40-45mph. On the drive from Gorham, Presidentials were socked in with dark boiling clouds which suggested impending doom and on top of the summit was a lenticular cloud. Much snow was probably blown to Bar Harbor per the winds over the last 3 days. TRT had numerous water bars and slick spots/ice to navigate hence challenging travel on numerous occasions. Descent down the Sherburne was for the most part actually fun & entertaining as long as you paid attention and made slow cautious short radius turns dancing for the good snow and avoiding ice, rocks, bare spots and hardpack and it is not for everyone now. Often, the snow would make an odd squeaking sound under my skis - not the usual one you hear with skis on cold snow. None. Snowpack appears to be bomber.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 0
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Rain Elevation
- n/a
- Recent Snowfall
- 2
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Cold and windy with ominous skies.
Snowpack
Wind affected snow at all elevations between Pinkham Notch and hermit Lake including in the forest off of trails and open areas. Above the intersection with the Huntington Fire Road, wind pillows became more pronounced. We dug pits at the NW corner for the class. Huge variability found. Left end of my pit showed HS 220cm with the other end showing 2 MF crusts with the lower one being laminated. Upper 1cm : 1F+ hardness, 219-140 down: 1F consistently, 140-130 down K hard, 130-105 down P hard. Two Compression tests provided no results. Removing snow to 170 down for a semi-DT test provided no results. Tinkering with more CTs by hammering with 2 fists from the shoulder after CTH no results provided no results and then 2 more with 2 fists from the shoulder gave us a planar result on some small facets, i.e.: CTVH (VH = Very Hard) Score 42 (I know, this is not a standard). Yeah, the new snow is practically epoxied to the most recent rain crust. TSurf: -17.0c, T10: -14.0