Peak 2

We headed up Peak 2 to troubleshoot the Upper Soldier weather station and get a baseline on the snowpack developing in the Soldiers. The weather station will remain out-of-service for the near-term, since the holiday storm cycle destroyed some of the communication equipment.

Surface conditions were variable in the Soldiers with a mix of wind-affect, soft snow, and bullet-proof crusts. The snowpack was up to 6.5' (2m) deep above 9,000' and generally thinned to 2' (50cm) deep at 7,000'. Below that, the snowpack remains very shallow. Wind slabs have formed on many exposed slopes yet seemed generally well-bonded to the new year's interface (STOUT melt-freeze crust).

Soldier Mountain Cat Ski guides triggered one wind slab avalanche with explosives during the morning (E aspect ~8800'). Additional cracks up to 20' long were observed near the avalanche crown.

Above 8500': 4-6 ft of snow cover the terrain, with roughly a foot of storm snow sitting atop a near bulletproof New Year's crust (~6 inch thick). Much of the storm snow is wind-affected and compacted into multiple generations of wind slabs or, in exposed areas, scoured back down to the crust. The holiday storms delivered a variety of snow and rain-driven layers that have largely congealed into a single ~2 ft thick slab. The 12/5 weak snow does exist 3+ feet below the surface in the areas we travelled through but is buried by such stout slabs and crusts that it seems unlikely to be trigged.

7000' to 8500': The snowpack generally thins through this zone, and most snow below the New Year's crust is consolidated into a solid refrozen block. The soft surface snow is actively faceting exists in sheltered locations.

Below 7000': There is generally less than a couple of feet of snow in this zone, and off trail travel remains challenging. Slopes that face the sun are largely burned off and dry while slopes on the northern half of the compass are holding onto small amounts of recent storm snow.