Grand Prize Gulch

We rode to the motorized boundary in Grand Prize and found a generally stable snowpack. Over the last 24 hours, 3-4" of new snow has fallen above 8500 feet, isolated to the further eastern end of where we rode today. Light snow showers continued today with little to no accumulation. In the high peaks above us, we could see evidence of recent wind transported snow from recent E winds—cross loading northerly slopes. 

New Snow: In the past 24 hours, snowfall has ranged from a trace to a generous 10 cm. Snowfall was mostly confined to the more interior, eastern areas we explored today. We found no signs of wind loading in the terrain we traveled through. We noticed a textured, rippled snow surface on an upper elevation cross-loaded, north-facing slope, indicating that wind had transported snow at some point. However, throughout the day, we did not observe any actively moving snow.

Upper Pack and Water Movement: Above about 8,000 feet, the upper snowpack is well-frozen, and the crusts on south and southeast aspects were supported to sleds and boot penetration. Digging on a southeast aspect at 9,200 feet, we found that water had penetrated about halfway down the snowpack (~40 cm deep, HS 140, ECTX). We observed perc columns in the upper 40 cm of the snowpack. A P+ hard dry slab separates the 01/31 layer from the wet snow above, where water pooled and froze at the top of the slab. We found a similar setup in hand pits on an east-facing slope near 8,000 feet, though the uppermost crust remained softer and moist.

Poking around in shadier slopes old snow has faceted but we did not find any obvious weak layers below the recent snowfall, even in the most likley places for SH to form (near creeks, or shaded meadows).