Quick report
The high pressure that's been sticking around for weeks has ensured little change in the avalanche danger or riding conditions. I didn't observe any avalanche problems or significant instabilities during my tour today.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 6.5
- Cloud Cover
- broken
It was a beautiful calm day, warmer than we've had recently. The sky was partly to mostly cloudy, but the clouds were high and thin, with lots of sun shining through.
Snowpack
I've been writing the same snowpack description for weeks now! ...both for Newberry Crater and the Cascades. Sunny slopes had a healthy melt-freeze crust (picture 1) until it softened midday and was nice corn riding. Remarkably, there is still soft dry snow in shady, open meadows and glades (picture 2). This snow has faceted (transformed into weak snow crystals) from the cold clear nights. I found very isolated surface hoar, mostly low in the terrain where cold air has pooled overnight (picture 3). Both this faceted snow and surface hoar could be a dangerous weak layer if new snow fell on top of them, but right now they are just reminders of powder riding long ago.
While I didn't ride to Paulina Peak today, I know from earlier observations that soft snow is pretty limited up high, near treeline where it was blown away by North winds last week.