Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
Overall the surface snow was more supportable today than yesterday. Ski penetration in the skin track was below boot top (~30cm) in sheltered areas, where yesterday it was at or above the knee (~45-50cm). As soon as you stepped out of your equipment today then it was a whole different world with hip to chest deep penetration into the snow(see photos). With all the new snow and elevated avalanche danger we didn't venture into steep terrain. On small test slopes we did see isolated cracking where wind had stiffened the surface snow.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- obscured
- Wind Loading
- intense
- Recent Snowfall
- 30cm past 24hr
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
The morning saw a lull in the storm, but the afternoon saw more snowfall and stronger winds than forecast.
Snowpack
The new snow is deep in the Mammoth area, which you don't need me to say. So I will follow this up with some snow profiles to fill you in on exactly how deep it is and a look at what's underneath. The cliff notes is that since February 10th we have about 140 cm of new snow sitting on our old surfaces in the Mammoth Area. Deep Tap tests on this interface did not show sudden or planar results in the two locations where we dug snow profiles. Total height of snow was 256cm(Minaret) and 200cm(Old Mammoth) respectively.