Kendall Peak

There's snow in the trees! The pass has about 8-10in (and counting) of snow over the 12/30 crust which is greatly improving travel. The upper snowpack remains a bit complex with a few potential weaklayers. However, our biggest concern today continued to be coverage and the numerous open creeks. 

Surface Snow: The snow surface became moist/wet in the rain. Melt forms were almost immediately visible. The wet snow layer only extend an inch or so into the snowpack. Below the snow as still heavy, but much drier. Hand pits, tilt tests, and snowpack tests highlighted a few subtle inter-storm layers. However small slopes did not produce any avalanches. 

Upper Snowpack: It was easy to find all of the snowpack markers (12/30, 12/25, Solistice Crust (12/22), and the 12/6 AR crust). We could also find weak snow above or within each of these layers. However, snowpack tests did not show any significant failures. Grain ID was a challenge today, given the warm and wet weather, but we could make out facets between many of the crust layers. Where we traveled the 12/30 crust was typically very strong and our boots would not break through it. It was generally about 8-10in (20-25cm) below the surface. 

Creeks: On thing that caught our attention today was not just the open creeks you expect, but the dozens and dozens of open creeks that we never knew were depressions less alone flowing water.