Quick report
It felt like spring skiing in the Swan today, with mild temps, no winds, and sunshine.
- The snow was moist up to approximately 7000 feet, even on northerlies.
- Evidence of a recent upper-elevation thermal belt in the form of a thin surface crust was noted in northern aspects.
- Recent snow above the 12/22 crust is consolidating with ambient above-freezing air temperatures.
- Evidence of trees shedding snow was a good indicator that the sun had been warming above 6000 feet.
- In the terrain we traveled, we did not observe wind-drifted snow.
- Below 6000 feet, we snowmobiled on very thin coverage. Yikes!
Weather
- Air Temp
- 30 to 34
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Above the strong cloud deck about 4000 feet, there was mostly clear skies and sun.
Snowpack
Our snowpit at 7100 feet on a north aspect was 95 cm deep. The 12/7 crust was down 40 cm and 3" thick. We had no propagation in large-column tests.