Quick report
The snowpack is dry to the ground and weak snowpack structure can be found on north and northwest aspects. The slab overlaying weak facets near the ground is very stiff and most of the facets within the snowpack are rounding. We did not get propagation in an extended column test and neither did another group of skiers in a pit on a similar aspect and elevation. The snow at the surface was very soft and cohesionless, with the potential for sluffing off steeper terrain.
We saw no obvious signs of instability but found poor snowpack structure and plenty of soft, unconsolidated surface snow with the ability to sluff in steeper terrain.Weather
- Air Temp
- 14
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 36
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
The sky was mostly clear in the morning and increased cloud cover slowly moved in throughout the day. The sun still shone through the clouds periodically. Temperatures were cold but warmed in the afternoon. The wind was calm and from the west.
Snowpack
We dug a snowpit on a northwest aspect at 6000'. The depth of this pit was 127cm (50"). We found 36 cm (14") of soft and unconsolidated new/recent snow including a small layer of graupel. Below this we found a pencil hard melt freeze crust. We did not observed faceting around the crust. Below the crust was a stiff slab of rounding facets. At the ground was a small layer of dry, weak facets. We performed an extended column test and got hard non-propagating results just below the melt freeze crust (ECTN24).
We also ran into another group of skiers who dug a pit on a north aspect around 6000' and said they got a moderate collapse in a compression test (CT14) at the weak facets near the ground and did not get propagation in an extended column test.
Overall, the snowpack is still relatively shallow on Lolo Pass, including on north aspects, and the snow was dry all the way to the ground.