Rubicon

While snow does exist in the Rubicon parking area, it barely covers the ground until you get above about 7800 ft. Above that elevation, coverage starts to improve. I also started to feel the buried weak layers and rain crusts by probing with my poles at this elevation. As I moved above 8200 ft, the rain crusts quickly weakened, and I could no longer feel them above 8400 ft. When I stepped off my skis into the snow, I would sink about 70 cm into the snow. I could feel myself punch through the moist surface snow and then through the weak facets buried in the lower half of the snowpack (see the snowpack section for more details). The surface snow stayed moist all day, and I even triggered a few small roller balls. 

Below about 7800 ft, the snowpack remains thin. By 7800-7900 ft, 40 - 50 cm of snow existed on the ground. The snowpack consists of about 20 cm of moist snow on top of 25 cm of old rain crusts with layers of weak, sugary snow between them in the 7800 to 8200 ft elevation range. Above 8200, the snowpack got deeper, and the rain crusts disappeared by 8400 ft. The lower half of the snowpack consisted of mostly weak faceted snow above 8400 ft. The buried weak snow was drier and did not clump together very well at these higher elevations. This weak snow has strengthened a bit since our last visit to Rubicon, but tests still indicate that it may not support much additional loading.