Quick report
Tree bombs were coming down when I arrived at the Upper Sand Flat trailhead around 1pm. Air temperature was right around freezing. Flat aspects still had dry soft snow, except where tree bombs had come down. Solar aspects were starting to get wet, and whatever melt/freeze crust there might have been this morning on those aspects had already softened. Snow quality on the north aspect I skied was excellent: soft, dry, but supportable enough that ski penetration was limited to ~20 cm. This was a good thing, because the 70-90 cm snow depth was just enough to cover most obstacles. There are still snow surface features from buried logs, boulders, and small trees, but I didn't actually hit anything underneath all day. There were still a few tree bombs, but not enough to affect the ski quality. There are about a dozen tracks out in that zone, but still plenty of fresh. Air temperatures on the north aspect dropped from 30F to 28F from 2-4pm. No wind. Lapped the north aspect a few times down to a minimum elevation of 6300', then returned to the Upper Sand Flat trailhead. No sun crust had developed on the north aspect, and snow was still soft and dry when I left the area around 430pm. No signs of instability on north aspect 6300'-6800'. Several inches of snowpack settlement since the last storm was apparent from settlement cones on trees.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 30
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
Snowpack
Dug a pit at the top of the tree run, 6800', north aspect, 27 deg slope angle. 0-10 cm: K ice crust (presumably from before the latest storm); 10-35 cm: F+ (nearly 4F); 35-70 cm F; 70-90cm F (slightly softer than the layer below). ECTX. Shovel shears only inconsistently fractured the column on the (minor) density changes. Snowpack height was 70 cm at 6300'.