Quick report
We experienced generally stable conditions on our tour today. The obvious wind-drifts/wind-slabs that we encountered were generally small and they were unreactive to our skis when we tested them. There is still some snow available for transport from this last storm, but with time, existing wind slabs should bond to the existing snowpack and gain strength.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 12
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- light
- Recent Snowfall
- 5
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Scattered snow showers dropped about an inch of snow throughout the day. Winds were Calm to Light, generally from the North.
Snowpack
Significant snow coverage began around 3800 ft. Between 7000'-8000' we found between 75cm- 200+cm total snow, with an average of 110cm on Western (windward) aspects and deeper accumulation where wind was depositing snow. We experienced between 5cm-20cm of newer, soft snow on top of the most recent Melt-Freeze Crust. We saw small amounts of wind transport and some mounds of wind-drifted snow forming with limited cracking or clear slab formation where we traveled. We dug one pit around 7900', E. aspect, in a wind-affected area and found 210cm of snow and found well-consolidated, right-side-up snow in the top 120cm. In an Extended Column Test, we got ECTN 15, 20cm down with a soft slab that fell apart and did not leave a clean fracture plane.