Quick report
Between laps on phat ridge, our skin track had filled back in from wind-blown snow in many places. We saw evidence of wind loading, but could not trigger any slabs with the limited supply of test slopes in our travels. I would expect there to be sensitive wind slabs along exposed ridgelines on South and East aspects.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 23-28
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Recent Snowfall
- 40
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Mostly overcast skies with several short-duration pops of sun that warmed solar aspects quickly. Temperatures from 23-28 degrees with Light winds and Moderate gusts out of the NW. Light snow throughout the day (S-1) with less than 1" of accumulation.
Snowpack
The storm snow totaled 40 cm/16", with 25 cm/10" of that falling overnight. Foot pen was 60 cm/2 feet, punching below the crust from last week and into moist snow grains from the 3/22 storm. I dug a pit at 7900' on a Northeast aspect on Phat Ridge and found 295 cm/9.5' of total snow. The crust from the big warm-up earlier in the week sat below the new snow and was 4F+ in hardness. 20 cm/8" of 1F- moist snow was found below this crust. The 3/22 melt-freeze crust sat below this layer and was breaking down, 4F in hardness. Large Graupel snow was found sitting above this crust, and a column failed with an easy shovel shear test on this layer. Below the 3/22 crust was a 1F+ to pencil-hard slab to the bottom of my pit, which was 4 feet deep. No propagation in our Extended Column Test.
Avalanche
No new avalanches observed, although visibility was limited.