Granite Peak

Snowfall ramped up on 1/4-1/5, delivering over 12" of snow in places to the Silver Valley-Bitterroots. This snow fell with a gradual cooling trend, delivering dry light snow at upper elevations. Elevations around 6000' and below have developed another crust from rain and wet snow that is now buried close to the surface from today's snowfall. 

On a steep east-facing slope at 6500, the snow surface was textured from the wind, and small cracks were extending beyond my skis.

The snow line finally dropped to valley floors overnight on Sunday, January 4th, and into Monday. Because of the high rain line in the previous days, the upper elevation band is becoming a different environment compared to the middle and lower elevations.  Above tree line, the upper portion of the snowpack is dry and has weak grains surrounding decomposing rain crusts that have not been saturated.

At 6500' on an east-facing aspect, the HS was 220cm near a cliff band that had been previously wind-loaded. We found 33cm of new light snow since 1/4. A harness change could be felt around the 1/1 interface 45cm down, creating a slightly inverted slab. Below that, facets sat on top of the Grinch crust, which is now buried 64cm down. The remaining snowpack was a mix of rounding facets between the 12/19 and 12/17 decomposing rain crusts. Layers above and below the AR crusts turned to small rounds, with the base of the pack consisting of P- hardness poly crystals that were showing some signs of faceting. 

We did not get any propagating results in our ECT. We also did not find any preserved surface hoar that developed during the New Year holiday period, but it seems possible it could have survived in protected areas above tree line that was able to stay above the recent rain and dense snow.