Quick report
I travelled between 8500 and 11000 ft. on both south and north-facing slopes in the vicinity of Mammoth Pass. I skied corn on solars and facet pow in protected, north-facing trees. On other aspects and terrain types (like east, west, and wind-exposed areas), I found conditions more variable. All aspects below treeline were crusty.
I ski cut steep rollovers with wet snow and with loose facets and got no signs of sluffing. I stomped at the edges of hard wind baord atop weak facets and could get some minor, localized cracking.Weather
- Air Temp
- 30s and 40s
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- NA
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Cool northeast wind was the most wintry thing about today. Coincidentally, reports indicate that Phil saw his shadow, so maybe we'll have 6 more weeks of winter after all. Fully sunny skies and above-freezing temperatures made for a beautiful, mild day. Isolated areas of very light blowing snow at ridgetops.
Snowpack
Slopes that face the southern half of the compass are drastically different from those that face the northern half of the dial.
Solars:
- Melted to dirt or snow depth up to ~3 ft.
- The whole snowpack where I dug was moist melt forms at 11:30 am. (10300 ft., south aspect).
Polars:
- I measured snow depths from 3 to 6 ft.
- The top ~30 cm of the snowpack are largely faceted. These facets are big and loose (recrystalized powder) in wind-protected trees.
- In open areas, there's a grab bag of wind-affected surfaces, from soft, faceted sastrugi to knife-hard windboard.