Carson Pass

We toured around Frog Lake on Carson Pass today. The weather was pleasent with warm ambient air and light winds out of the S/SW. Light snow was transporting at times but not enough to really build up anywhere. Below treeline was protected from the gale force winds a couple of days ago, with cold and soft snow in shaded and wind protected areas which, made for good riding conditions on the way out. Above tree line was a combination of wind effected areas, patches of exposed ice crusts and supportable wind packed surfaces. Elephant's Hump was scoured to the rocks on the NW/W facing aspect. We stopped to dig a pit on a N aspect @ 8800' adjacent to Frog Lake. The compression test had a Q1 planar result about 30cms down. I progressed to an ECT and had propagating results on the same layer. After inspection it was clear there was buried surface hoar at this location. This isolated spot is in a perfect protected setting for surface hoar growth so maybe not that surprising. After that we walked along the ridge looking for small wind features and drifts to check on wind slabs and nothing was moving at all in our ski cuts. No other signs of instability were observed.

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