Quick report
2 recent glide avalanche releases, and glide cracks at mid elevations. Very intact 8mm buried surface hoar 4" down from Friday night's storm. Glide cracks remain on the move over the weekend since the 11/15 new snow, with cracks opening and two releases occurring at some point since the Friday storm exited.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 15
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- light
- Rain Elevation
- 0
- Recent Snowfall
- 2
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Overcast skies occasionally obscuring mountain peaks, clearing to broken by afternoon. Temps in the teens, with light winds gusting moderate from the north and east above 1700' Minor snow transport at treeline, with difficult light to observe any transport at ridgelines
Snowpack
4" of new snow from the Friday 11/15 storm, and 1/2" of new snow over tracks from yesterday this AM. Snow Surface: Below/at treeline: 4-6" ski penetration along the entire route, with some minor wind affect/stiffening of the surface from occasional moderate N to E winds today. Above treeline: Colorado and high elevation Fresno was scoured to the ground on wind exposed ridgelines. Snowpack: A consistent 2-2.5' snowpack from 1500' - 2300', with a crust noticeable just above the ground with ski pole probing. See snowpack structure and test results in the photos; the only remarkable feature in the pit was a very well preserved 8mm buried surface hoar layer below the 11/15 new snow. It was not reactive in shovel tilt tests and the new snow was too soft to test it with compression tests, but it was very obvious visually/intact in the pit wall (see photos). That said, this location often preserves buried surface hoar well, so it will be interesting to see if other pits in the region find it intact as well.
Avalanche
Two glide releases over the weekend, both south facing and mid-elevation (see photos below)