Josephine Lake

Below 8000', a very hard, thick crust complex exists. In areas where this crust complex exists, it would be very difficult to impact weak snow mid-pack or near the ground. Since the crust complex was driven by last week's rain event, it can be found across all aspects on the compass. Below 8000', we seem to be looking at new storm snow instabilities (i.e. wind slab, storm slab). Above 8000', greater uncertainty remains. Due to the poor coverage, travel into the upper elevations has been non-existent. So we are operating with more uncertainty about the structure of the snowpack at upper elevations. Above 8-8500', I suspect a drier snowpack exists with more pronounced weak layers.  The recent ice/crust complex may be thinner at upper elevations and therefore it would be more likely to impact persistent weak layers buried mid-pack or near the ground.

Last week's rain event capped with several days of above average temperatures really did a number on the snowpack. A very hard ice/crust complex exists just beneath the snow surface. Depending on elevation, this crust/ice complex can range from 4-8" in thickness. 3-4" of new snowfall was stacking up atop the crust and was not bonding well. We did not observe propagation in our ECTs. It would be difficult to impact snow beneath the crust in areas where this thick crust  complex exists (~below 8000'). The snowpack is still very shallow for this time of year. We found 2-3 feet of snow on the ground around 7200'.