Eastside Region

You’re unlikely to trigger a sizeable avalanche in wind-drifted snow today. If you find yourself in an area where new snowfall is more than a few inches, watch for blowing snow and assess loaded slopes for cracking before you commit to extreme terrain. Plenty of shallowly buried obstacles downslope could increase the consequences of a small avalanche.

Strong southwest winds will drift a few inches of new snow onto leeward terrain. Small slabs could form on favored terrain features: below ridgelines and in gullies. On the regional scale, these drifts will be isolated and inconsequential. The Mammoth Area and Sierra Crest should receive the most new snow. So, the wind slab machine has more fuel in those areas. It’s worth noting dense new snow that cracks atop the old snow surface. A small avalanche can have consequences if it knocks you down above a cliff or drags you through the rocks.

Old snow surfaces:

Wind-compacted snow litters exposed areas. Upwind slopes have been stripped. Sunny skies with above-freezing temperatures over the past week have put solar aspects and lower elevations through the melt-freeze cycle. The most sheltered, shady slopes have loose, sugary surfaces.

Snowpack structure: 

The deepest snow is from Mammoth to Tioga Pass, where the snowpack is settling and older faceted grains mid-pack, and near the ground, are rounding. Areas with shallower snowpacks, like Rock Creek, are faceted from top to bottom. A facet/crust combo buried on the 12th is identifiable in some snow pits. There have been no signs of instability from weak layers in the snowpack since before the last major storm.