Quick report
The main story of the day was increasing winds around noon leading to impressive blowing snow in alpine terrain on the Dana Plateau. Cold ambient air temperatures prevented the onset of wet loose avalanching in the northern part of the forecast region today.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 26
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Recent Snowfall
- 20
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Blowing snow in the afternoon on alpine ridgelines downwind of large fetches.
Snowpack
Snow depth below treeline in Lee Vining Canyon varies with elevation and aspect. At the elevation of the Poole plant road snow cover is inconsistent and patchy once above 9000' there is coverage on all aspects. Skis sank in above the ankle today on northerly aspects where the most recent melt-freeze crust below the new snow is still soft and breakable. On solar aspects, the recent snow had settled and the crust was supportable leading to skis fully supported on ice crust below a few inches of new snow. Northerly snow remained dry in the early afternoon on shady slopes. On sun exposed slopes the snow became moist but no liquid water was observed in the upper snowpack.
Near treeline light light-blowing snow was observed along with thin surface wind slabs in isolated areas.
9500' NE aspect: 26F HN: 20cm, Boot pen: 50cm Ski pen: 22 cm (edging soft crust and new/old interface) HS 230, December facets down 210. Metl-freeze crusts alternate with rounds and decomposing precip. particles in the upper 2 feet of the snowpack.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2.5
- Count
- 2
- Aspect
- NE
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 12000 ft
A large avalanche on the North face of Mt. Wood was spotted on the afternoon of 4/5/24 on the tail end of the storm. With clear skies on 4/6 we were able to see more specifics and suspect this was a wind slab avalanche.