Bishop Bowl

I set out with mountain boots to climb the S facing morraine up to Bishop Bowl in mostly dry conditions. I was glad to have my boots as the patches of snow that did exist had boot pen of 45 to 65 cm. 

Snow was mostly continuous above 9100', Previous intense wind activity had some areas stripped while others were wind stiffened or loaded. Wind affected surfaces were 1F to P hard, and most slabs observed were very thin, no more than 5 cm. I found F hard faceted snow beneath these thin slabs. I experienced cracking underfoot, but no collapsing or propagation. Of note, I did not travel in avalanche terrain where wind loading was present due to my uncertainty in the structure and reactivity.

Only the most protected terrain N - E, 10000' to 11000' held soft surface snow with no slab formation whatsoever. See snowpack obs for more details. 

 I dug in various places to assess snowpack structure in Bishop Bowl and generally found the following in protected E - N terrain 10K - 11K: 

• HS 90 - 120 cm. 
• F - 4F new snow (already faceted) over a K hard rain crust up to ~ 10200', over 4F - 1F hard facets and depth hoar, 2 - 6 mm, cupped and striated. Some areas held thin wind slabs and wind skins at the surface.
• Test results showed no reactivity in this structure within standard parameters, but I did get propagating results @ 34 taps on facets just beneath the 2/1 rain crust about 25 cm down. I wanted to see what would happen with just a little more force. The snow slid out as a cohesive unit but quickly fell apart. 
• A very hasty ECT at 10700, N, BTL terrain had ECTX, with no raincrust and just facets making up the whole snowpack. This area was protected and not wind loaded.