Little Girls

The warm and incremental snowfall over the last week has improved snow depths throughout the area, but hasn't loaded things enough to crush and consolidate weaker snow in the middle snowpack. Snow that fell wet and heavy a couple of days ago has dried out, creating more desirable travel conditions with fewer exposed hazards, but our snowpack remains punchy with few supportive layers within its structure. Expect to find about a meter of total snow at Thompson Pass road level up to 3500 feet, with higher amounts in upper elevations. Big weather changes are in the near future and will bring cold and windy conditions to our area by the weekend. Our first forecast will be published at 8 am tomorrow. Stay tuned for updates as conditions change.

The wet snowfall over the last couple of days has dried/cooled and formed a 2cm-thick rain crust that can be found up to 3000'.  Continuous incremental snowfall over the last week has formed slabs 1-2 feet thick in the observed area. Weak faceted snow and, in some areas, surface hoar underlie this slab, which has been reactive in pit tests and on small test slopes.  Today, an Extended Column Test (ECT) produced propagation on the 18th tap (ECTP18), down 44cm on the faceted old-new interface. (See pit for details). Snowpack height averaged about 1 meter from the parking lot to 3300' and still showed fairly low strength in the mid-pack. Boot penetration is still 60 cm or more, and snowmachines can easily punch through to the ground when riding aggressively.