Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
We enjoyed a pleasant gray bird day in the Middle Fork. • The last 48 hours have produced modest snowfall totals. ~2 inches of fresh snow on the canyon floor from yesterday afternoon and about ~5 inches up high by days end today. • We found quality riding conditions around the compass with much less wind effect than expected. We did not start observing any wind textured snow surfaces until above ~6500' and at our high point of ~7200' wind effect in the last 24 hours seemed unremarkable. • Along ridge top, we stomped on a few areas likely to harbor fresh slabs and were able to produce some cracks in recently drifted snow. One small slab directly below ridgetop was about 8-10" thick. • Due to the minimal wind effect observed and generally good snow structure, we felt comfortable skiing into a steep east facing slope at upper elevations and found that the recently wind stiffened snow seemed confined to the first 25 feet or so below ridgetop. A few cracks produced intentionally in fresh drifts on an upper elevation ridge. Fresh wind slabs seemed relatively small and did not extend very far below the ridge.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 23
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Recent Snowfall
- 8
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Cloudy, very calm, and lightly snowing throughout the day. At upper elevations, winds were mostly calm, but occasionally light out of the west. Light snowfall throughout the day amounted to an inch or less. Temps remained below freezing all day. -5C (23F) temp measured mid-day at upper elevations.
Snowpack
We dug a pit at 6673' on a south facing slope. Details within attached pit graph. • HS- 184cm • HN24- ~8cm at upper elevations • Two recently formed rime/freezing rain crusts beneath the recent snow. Riding quality was unaffected, as both of these crusts were thin, decomposing, and fragile. • Snowpack is presently very strong on this slope. Generally gains hardness with depth and has few weak layers present. We identified one thin layer of small rounding facets above a crust 62cm below the surface. • An Extended Column Test produced non propagating results.