Quick report
Despite warm temps, I saw no evidence of wet-loose avalanche problems (no roller-balls on the snow surface. Even at 3pm snow was barely melting off of the trees). I found signs of wind slabs that appeared to have developed in the last 1-2 days, but I did not experience any cracking where I travelled.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 35
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Rain Elevation
- 6500
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Skies were overcast and winds were light to moderate all day from the South and West. Between 7100'-7900' temps ranged from 32F-35F. There was around 6 inches of dense new snow but no new snow throughout the day.
Snowpack
I dug multiple pits with the goal of targeting and assessing the Valentine's Day buried surface hoar layer and the January Facets. I found both of these layers present at 7700' on a SE and a N aspect, down 2-3 feet. Snowpack tests indicate lingering instability on these layers that were more pronounced on Northern aspects.