North Carson pass

I toured up and around the ridgeline of North Carson pass this moring. Getting out of the truck winds were calm and not moving much snow in the parking lot. As I climbed up cold and higher wind speeds continued to increase coming out of the NE-E all the way up to the ridgeline. The snow in this area was soft, unconsolidated and was easily transporting to western slopes. I rolled over the ridge line to west facing aspect to look for slab formation but did no find anything significant just wind loaded piles of drifted snow. Most west face aspects in this area did not hold much snow and was not possible to travel down. I was able to move back towards an E-SE face and found enough snow to make my way back down.  The snow quality was great make for some nice powder turns however, the coverage was thin and obstacles kept me from going to fast. No signs of instability were observed on this tour.

While touring around I stopped and dug a couple pits, one was on a North aspect @ 8800'. I observed a simialr snowpack as what has been reported as of late with 30cms of new snow on top of near surface facets followed by depth hoar at the bottom. The facets within this pit (both NSF and DH) were weak, larger in grain size (2-3mm) dry, and not compressing in the hand at both layers. On the surface of the pit was large surface hoar and it is well formed after the last couple of cold nights. I also stopped on a W-SW aspect at 8700'. The HS was ~60cm with 25cms of new snow on top of a thin brittle crust and DH below that. The facets at the bottom are actually gaining strength at this location. The grains were moist and compressible in the hand.