Weather
- Air Temp
- Below Freezing
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- light
- Rain Elevation
- 2500 ft
- Recent Snowfall
- 2 cm
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
The morning started cloudy and dry, but by lunchtime snow showers picked up and laid down 2-3 cm of new snow by 2pm.
Snowpack
I was pleasantly surprised to find usable snow from the Ahtanum Meadows Campground (but still quite thin). On my ride up to Darland Mountain, I found a very shallow snowpack for early January. Solar aspects are melted down to sage in most areas. Once at Clover Flats @ 6300 ft and above, I started observing a deeper(2-3'), more layered snowpack. Importantly, I also observed surface hoar in most areas I traveled. Light new snow buried this surface hoar by the afternoon hours.
Quick hand pits and snowpack tests showed an overall weak upper snowpack. The upper snowpack is made up of a couple of different crusts that harbor weak snow above and below, including a layer of buried surface hoar. In general, I found these weak layers about 9-12 inches below the snow surface. These weak layers arn't a problem now, but we'll continue to watch them as new snow piles up. Look at the attached pictures for more details.
Stay tuned for changing conditions.