Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Digging at 8900 feet on a Northeast aspect we found a stable snowpack with 6-8 inches of settled snow above the Christmas Rain Crust. Here, the snow below the rain crust was a firm, homogenous layer of refrozen snow nearly 12 inches thick; below that, a thin layer of depth hoar remained on the ground and was moist. ECTX</p>
There is minimal snow in this area below 8000 feet. The trail access is thin. You can mostly climb on snow from the parking lot, with short patches of dirt up until the Mt. Olympus wilderness boundary. Slopes with a north tilt to them stayed cold, and here the snow consisted of small grain Near Surface Facets. On a SE aspect at 9450 feet on a 25˚ slope, we found small grain facets. Given the warm temperatures today, this is likely to be an isolated find and not representative of steeper SE-facing slopes.