Quick report
Warm snow on all aspects and elevations up to 5500’. Did not notice any signs of avalanche activity today but there was some evidence of wind slabs that had occurred recently (within 2-3 days). We had a pretty late start (10:30) and lost the sun pretty quick out on the skin track(11:00) which didn’t allow the south face of Herman to warm up or shed. By the time we ascended the top of Mazama bowl to return to the car it started lightly snowing (14:30, 5500’). Very flat light. We did not notice any obvious signs of instability. I expected to see warm snow avalanche problems today but was not witnessed even on the south face of Herman. No roller balls or wet loose avalanche where noticed but it did feel warm in the cirque.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 32-40
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- Higher then 4200 but lower then 5500
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
Partly cloudy start that eventually turned cloudy. A small storm was beginning to come in around 2:30. No observed wind and warm temps.
Snowpack
Warm snow on all aspects and elevations of varying constancy up to 5500’. South faces: Down low the snow was challenging to ski and very sticky, while higher up it was possible to link a couple turns before taking a break to rest the legs. Felt like spring skiing. North faces: Warmed up wind effected snow but the coldest yet which made for some great skiing. The top couple inches of snow was warm but below this there was still some cold snow. Small breakable crust in some locations, closer to 5000’.