Quick report
We got an early start and headed to Glacier Park to get to 7500 feet.
- The atmospheric river crust buried December 7th extends at or above 7500 feet in this location.
- Yesterday (December 13th), an inversion baked the upper elevation’s surface snow, creating a surface crust ranging from an inch to 1.5 inches thick.
- At middle elevations, the crust was thinner, which we speculated was a result of the cloud inversion that kept these elevations from receiving direct sunlight.
- Our takeaway for backcountry travel in this area remains that conditions are challenging. Low snowfall, surface crust, and downfall hazards meant less skiing and more walking.
Weather
- Air Temp
- Below freezing
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Calm day with a two layer inversion. Low elevations were in the clouds and overcast skies kept the temperatures from rising.
Snowpack
We had no propagating results in our large column snow pit tests.
- 7500 feet, NE aspect, HS: 98cm, ECTX. CT 22: failed on facets above the AR crust.
- Atmospheric River crust is buried 40 cm below the surface.
- Moist facets make up the majority of the lower snowpack below the AR crust.
- The surface had a melt-freeze crust.