Quick report
There is anywhere from 4-8+' of snow on the ground where we traveled today. We observed no signs of instability, but in snowpits we found weak sugary snow below a dense slab of snow. While this slab is thick and fairly supportable, when walking in a snowmobile track (or digging out a stuck sled) we would drop through the bottom portion of the slab into the weak snow below. By the early afternoon, the recent snowfall since 02/13 had become more cohesive.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Recent Snowfall
- 3-8
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Skies were overcast with short periods of broken skies. Snowfall was S-1 with intermittent periods of S1. Winds were light from the S and SW, with moderate W gusts. The truck read 33* at 3:30 PM.
Snowpack
HS at lower elevations was 150cm+, and 2+ meters above ~7500'. 01/31 is buried 100-130 cm in the places we traveled today.
The upper 60 cm of the snowpack is a hodgepodge of various storm snow layers. Of note was a thin temperature crust observed on a NE facing slope at 7600' below the most recent series of storms (02/13), and a noticeable interface below that (02/06). By early afternoon, below 7000' recent snowfall had become more cohesive. Easily packed into dense snowballs, and while riding, the storm snow would pile up in front of the sleds, almost like a snowplow. On solar slopes there is a 1cm crust that likely formed from Friday and Saturday's strong sun, capped by last night's 3-8 cm of new snow.
We dug on a NE facing slope at 7600', with ECTX results and PST65/135 END @ 120cm on facets below the 1/31 interface (total HS: 260cm). The structure was still poor, with a generally right side up slab (1F-F) above 1-2mm 4F hardness facets.