Quick report
The March return of winter has been pleasant for snow conditions, and we enjoyed a lovely spring day with occasional snow squalls and brief periods of sun. Thankfully, there wasn't enough sun to make wet avalanches a concern where we were today. There were plenty of recent avalanches from the previous stormy weather and winds. We mostly observed very small crowns that were widespread throughout the terrain, but there were a couple of deeper avalanches in wind-loaded terrain below steep ridgelines. Even though test slopes produced no cracking or signs of instability, the recent avalanches were enough to keep us off steep slopes and enjoying low-angle March powder turns. Even below 4500ft, where the snow was moist, it was still smooth and supportable for travel.
There were many very shallow (3-4inch) crowns on convex features throughout the terrain. While these were quite small, they were surprisingly wide. We also saw some deeper crowned in more wind-loaded features.Weather
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
It was a typical unsettled spring day. It was mostly cloudy, with light winds that were occasionally gusty. At times, convective showers produced intense but short-lived graupel showers followed by brief sun breaks.
Snowpack
Snow Surface Summary: At lower elevations, below 4500ft, a 2-3cm thick, breakable melt-freeze crust exists just below a dusting of fresh snow. Above 5000ft on most aspects, snow surfaces are soft and dry with some wind affect in more exposed terrain. By the time we exited the field, snow was moist but supportable below 4500ft.
Snowpack Summary: We dug a snow profile at 5150ft on a north aspect just above Lake Valhalla. The upper snowpack is mostly precipitation particles and decomposing fragments increasing in hardness from Fist to 4-finger above a 1cm thick, pencil-hard, melt-freeze crust buried 83cm deep. A few storm interfaces from the past week produced resistant planar results in small column tests. Below the uppermost melt-freeze crust is 10cm of weaker (4F) snow above another thicker (3cm) pencil-hard melt-freeze crust. Below this crust is strong, consolidated snow down to the Late February AR crust, buried 128cm deep.
West and southwest aspects had 60-75cm of snow over a thick, supportable melt-freeze crust.
Total Snow Height: 380cm
Stability Test Results: CT6 RP ↓17cm, CT13 RP ↓40cm