Lincoln Ridge

We toured from Yuba Pass to the Lincoln Ridge area this morning. Winds were light at pass level, but a few wispy clouds overhead were moving along quickly, indicative of the NE winds. As we ascended towards 7,000', we started to see tree branches moving in the wind. As we ascended past 7,000', the NE winds became stronger with areas of recent wind scouring notable. Visible blowing snow was limited to during wind gusts. Cornices along the ridgetop were in the process of being scoured. Not much drifted snow was noted on the leeward side of the ridge. Snowmobile tracks from yesterday along the ridgetop and in leeward areas were still prominent with only a few isolated spots where they had filled in with drifting snow.

Melt-freeze crust up to 1 cm thick was noted on on the southerly aspects that we traveled, which were all below 7,100'. We saw several areas of surface hoar. These will inevitably be destroyed by warming daytime temps and reformed overnight several times this week before any potential for burial by new snowfall.

Probed HS at 1.3 to 1.4m in a wind protected area along the ridgetop near 7,800'.