Observation: Black Bess

Went up to Black Bess (Grizzly Gulch) today to take a look at high elevation W facing slopes. We dug a pit on a west facing shady slope at 9,930' and found 60 cm of snow separating us from the ground. The snowpack at this location is a multi-layered sandwich of soft snow in between crusts. We found 1-mm faceted grains between 13-21 cm above the ground, below a stout crust (as seen in photo), We also found small faceting rounds above this crust 27-49 cm above the ground. With clear nights and a light breeze in the forecast, we expect the faceting process to continue. We purposefully chose this location for a snowpit to remind ourselves that protected areas of lingering, rotting snow are something to look out for throughout the season, and they don't only exist on north facing slopes.

Snow surfaces on cool, shady slopes remain soft from the few bouts of new snow from 11/20-present. Any slopes exposed to the sun have a slick non-breakable crust below the dust from yesterday.