Quick report
- My observations focused on surveying the area following the damaging winds we experienced over the weekend.
- Variable and challenging surface conditions exist in most areas.
- Some terrain features had some impressive wind deposits from the last storm. I avoided most of these slopes, but the few I felt good to approach proved to be unreactive. I did note some thin deposits that seemed more recent. These ranged in size from small dinner plates to 10" slabs on mid slope rolles and small test slopes near tree line. (1f/4f and somewhere between reactive and stubborn.)
- Probing around above 9500', I found the basal facet layer to be inconsistent but present in some areas. No signs of instability were observed.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Light to moderate winds were observed below treeline increasing with altitude throughout my tour today with gusts well into the strong range. A storm system moved in mid-day along the crest and seemed to become more intense by the afternoon. By 2 o clock or so there were light snow showers in the bishop bowl zone. Temps were near freezing and wind chills mad things feel quite brisk in exposed areas.
Snowpack
HS ranged greatly with elevation and aspect. Most exposed areas are stripped back to the ground following the last few days of extreme winds. On more shaded aspects near treeline, I measured an average of 100-130 cm. surfaces would be best described as variable. Elevated tracks are present from travelers as recent as yesterday. Many areas are stripped back to old surfaces or event he ground and I sampled a wide variety of breakable wind boards, sastrugi, melt-freeze crusts, and in some favorable areas I managed to find some soft surface snow. Unfortunetly, in general we experienced a net loss to coverage with last weekends storm.