Quick report
A rain crust was observed on the surface throughout my travels, and a reflective sheen was visible on sunny sides of surrounding peaks up to their summits. No wind transport observed on any terrain features extending well south of my location. On cold slopes, a thin layer of snow just under the rain crust was cold and unconsolidated, and will be worth monitoring for faceting in the future. On cold slopes above 8000ft, the top 2-3ft of snow was dense and +/- 1 finger hard, but the facets between Dec 19th and Jan 2nd were still 1mm and 4f/fist hard. Skiing was better than expected above 8000ft, with a firm, chalky surface. But it was treacherous below that due to the rain crust, and got worse as I lost elevation. I probably should have stopped to put skins back on for safer descending.
I traveled through several areas of undisturbed snow, with characterisitcs similar to those where I've experienced whumpfing over the past week, with none observed today.Weather
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Rain Elevation
- at least 9000ft
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
Mild temps with moderate W/NW winds. Recent rain crust prevented any wind transport on neighboring peaks, which are ~10,000ft.
Snowpack
Top 2-3ft of snow was dense and +/- 1 finger hard, but the facets between Dec 19th and Jan 2nd were still 1mm and fist hard.