Quick report
Another brutal day on West Mountain. Rain up to ~7,000 feet. Limited information today due to access and weather. In the West Mountain zone, the low elevation band does not have enough snow to create avalanches. We observed evidence of a storm slab in the middle elevation band, with heavy, wet snow overlying softer snow from yesterday, all atop a stout crust. We were not able to get above 7,500 feet.
No obvious signs of instability observed. We were limited with travel access. We were able to get up to 7,100 feet, but got denied due to downed trees blocking access to the top of No Business Mountain. I suspect if we were able to get up a little higher into terrain that was wind-affected, we would have seen more signs of instability.Weather
- Air Temp
- 32-37
- Cloud Cover
- obscured
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Rain Elevation
- ~7100
- Recent Snowfall
- 25
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Nearly 40 degrees F and raining when we left the Donnelly Groomer shed this morning. Steady rain up to ~7,000 feet. Strong W/SW winds were swaying mature trees. Rain/snow level appeared to be dropping by 1300. Driving through the Long Valley, it seemed like the cold front was making its way through the valley as the temperature dropped 4-5 degrees and precipitation turned over to snow.
Snowpack
Much shallower snowpack over in this part of the zone. HS was about 1.5 feet. About 10" new snowfall since Wednesday (12/17). New storm snow was "upside down". No propagation in ECTs. Compression tests highlighted new storm snow instabilities. Rain crust was about 3" thick. Older, weak snow from October/November at the base of the snowpack was moist.