Incline Lake Peak Area

We explored the area around Incline Lake Peak and found cold, soft snow on the northerly aspects. The surface sparkled with recently formed feathery surface hoar. While on our skis, the more dense layers in the upper half of the snowpack supported us. However, when we stepped off our skis, we would sink almost to the ground into the weak snow in the bottom half of the snowpack. We could also feel these buried weak layers by probing with our ski poles as we skinned. Suffice it to say that the buried weak layers still exist in this area. Tests on these layers still produced unstable results, but we did not trigger any collapses or shooting cracks during our tour today.

Overall, coverage has improved in the Incline Lake Peak area since the last storm, especially on N-facing slopes above 8600 ft, but there are still plenty of things to hit.

The snowpack structure remains concerning, with more consolidated, denser snow resting on top of weak, sugary snow in the lower half of the snowpack. Tests still indicated that these buried weak layers could break, and fractures could travel through them (see pit profile for details).