Big creek

Toured on the north side of the road and found thin conditions with 2 feet of snow. Many logs, shrubs, and rocks were sticking out of the snow and more were lurking just below the surface. The snow was supportive enough with my 125 underfoot skis, but I remembered blowing an edge on my ski last year in similar conditions and tiptoed my way down dancing around the various lumps. Luckily no carnage today. I dug a quick pit on a NW aspect at 7400’ and found 80 cms of snow as well as 2 layers of concern. I was again able to make a snowball from the snow at ground level. The first layer was 25 cms down and likely the density shift from Sunday night’s quick warm up. CT 11 The second was another 25 cms down (30 cms from ground/50 cms below surface) and looked to be the Veterans Day warm up crust. CT 23 I had a whumph/collapse when I was skinning back up on the ridge. It was in a sheltered location where I have experienced collapses before-typically buried surface hoar. So it wasn’t a surprise and confirmed what I was seeing in my snow pit. It would not surprise me if this layer is active later this week with more snow 🤞and the warming event👎 predicted for Thursday/Friday. Even a small avalanche in the thin conditions could really mess up the season.

Quick report