Salmon la Sac - Eastern slopes, and East facing bowl below Red Mountain
Quick report
Challenging travel conditions were the theme today - open creeks, lots of brush, unending breakable crust from the valley floor all the way to 5,000 ft. The snow and crust changed quality slightly at around 4,500ft, the same elevation of snow line for the trace amounts of precipitaiton the area recieved yesterday and overnight. Below 4,500 ft the crust was punchier, and the snow wetter. Snow coverage was a mixed bag, with most areas having 1-3ft of continous snow, while steep, forested, solar aspects only held patches. Surface hoar growth was evident at all elevations in sheltered clearings. Although there were roller balls from previous days, no snow was rolling today. Avalanche concerns ranked far below worries about the knee-twisting crust and poking my eye out with a branch. Even though I was not treated to good skiing conditions, the sunny, calm weather and opportunity to check out a new-to-me area in low avalanche hazard made for an interesting and enjoyable outing!
Weather
- Air Temp
- High 20s/Low 30s
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- 4,500ft
- Recent Snowfall
- Trace
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
It was a calm day, with only a few clouds. There was some low-elevation fog as I was driving up the valley, but it cleared by the time I arrived at the trailhead at 9:30a.
Snowpack
In addition to several crust layers, I found a layer of notably weak snow between 20 and 30cm (8-12in) below the snow surface. This layer of fist-hardness snow sits on top of a crust. This crust below the weak snow was the layer my compression test failed at (CT11SC).
Height of Snow: 101cm, 40in
Ski pen = 3in
Boot pen = 10in