Baldy Backcountry

We found a very shallow and weak snowpack in the Mt. Baldy backcountry. Southern aspects (W, SW, S, SE) had mostly melted out below 8500 feet and northern aspects (NW, N, NE, E) held roughly 2-2.5 feet of very weak snow above 7000 feet. For now, this weak snow isn't concerning because there is no slab on top of it.

Very weak snowpack structure is concerning for future loading events.

We found a very shallow and weak snowpack in the Mt. Baldy backcountry. Snow depths ranged from 2-3 feet (50-80cm) and the snowpack was nearly all faceted sugary snow. Thin old unreactive wind slabs could be found in the immediate vicinity of ridgelines and in variable small pockets just below ridgelines.

We completed a quick pit that is representative of much of the shaded terrain we observed today:

• 8200' N aspect - HS 65cm - 25* slope
• 30cm F to 4F- extremely uncohesive "slab" of near surface facets over well-developed facets surrounding the decomposing 12/13 crust with 35cm of F hard facets to the ground
• ECTX - facets just pouring out during testing
• PST 43/100 END on FC below 12/13 layer