Observation: Cutler Ridge

It was a wet and windy day up on Cutler, with conditions better than expected up high and very grim down low. The road is completely snow free and anything below about 7000’ is basically unskiable. That said, above 8000’ the snowpack was deep enough that it didn’t feel brushy and travel was easy. But getting to and from there is… unpleasant. I was also pleasantly surprised with a quick snow pit, things were fairly cohesive throughout and any facets at the base were rounded and pretty well healed. A series of crusts at about 60 cm had some damp facets around them and these failed on a shovel shear. I did an ECT and found initiation within the new snow on the first tap, but no initiation or propagation below that. I had cold fingers and didn’t take any notes, so take the pit profile with a grain of salt.

photos: 1) pit hardness at 8300’; 2) looking down at coverage from 8300’; 3) looking up at Cutler from the meadow at 6800’

Snowpack was damp throughout up to around 7600’, at which point dry snow could be found deeper in the snowpack, but top half was still damp.