Quick report
I saw some very small wet loose avalanche on steeper northeast aspects. Rollerball were present on steep sunny slopes as well. These were likely from the past few days.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 41
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
Sunny and warm weather. At the summit the wind was light from the west.
Snowpack
Overall, I found a breakable crust (of various thickness) on sunny slopes. On more shaded aspects I found the upper few inches of the snowpack to be slightly moist. Some of the snow near the summit looked more wind effected likely from the easterly winds we had last week. There was some surface hoar on open shaded and wind protected areas but really not very much. I think the warm temperatures has melted quite a bit of this.
At 7,120 ft on a north aspect I dug a snowpit. Buried down 30" I found a thin graupel layer. I performed a compression test and an extended column test. I did not get any results with either of these tests (CTN and ECTX). This layer is likely very isolated and not found everywhere. Graupel can act as a weak layer but usually does not persist and stabilizes after a few days. This graupel layer has been buried for weeks.
With the recent warm temperatures some of the south facing slopes have melted a little but the shaded slopes are still very deep.
Overall, I did not find any cracking, whumpfing or persistent weak layers (facets and/or buried surface hoar).