Quick report
Wet snow from recent rain up to 6500'. Persistent slab problems continues to persist. The weak snow grains near the ground are rounding (which is good), however, this takes time. No signs of instability noticed while traveling. Read below for snowpack instability found within tests.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- 6500
- Recent Snowfall
- 2-4
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
Valley inversions and warm temperatures at higher elevations. Water dripping off trees at 7200'. No wind around 7300. Thin melt-freeze crust had formed at the surface.
Snowpack
We dug two pits today. Both were right around 7200'. One was on a N/NW aspect, the other E/SE aspect. HS varied from 40-70 cm (16-30"). North-facing snowpack structure is similar to what we've been seeing for the past few weeks (stronger snow at the top, rain crust in the middle, weak facets at the bottom). The recent warm temperatures are helping improve stability, however, this is a slow process. We did find a layer of buried surface hoar just above the facets in the north-facing snow pit. ECTP 13 and 19 on N/NW aspect. On the other side of the compass, much less snow and not nearly as much weak snow near the ground. ECTN 24 on the E/SE aspect.