Quick report
I made a quick trip to the Mt Marston Lookout:
- Found lightly wind-affected surfaces, drifts were soft and unreactive and cracking was minimal.
- No obvious signs of instability.
- Visibility cleared throughout the day and I noticed no recent avalanche activitiy on nearby slopes.
- Found a fragile crust under 3" of new snow between 6200'-7000'.
- The 12/7 surface hoar was buried 4 feet deep on a NE slope at 7300'.
- Found a couple facet layers on a SE slope at 7000'.
- Weak layers did not propagate in pit tests.
Overall this is the least amount of wind effect I've seen at this location. In the past, I've had to turn around before the summit due to drifting.
No obvious signs of instability.Weather
- Air Temp
- 18
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- light
- Recent Snowfall
- 10
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Light westerly winds above 6500'. Clearing through the day until 4:00 pm then some low cloud rolled in.
Snowpack
Pit at 7300' NE wind-loaded slope:
- HS = 2m
- ECTN 25 x 2 down 30 cm
- CTH 26 (RP) down 30 cm on small facets
- DTN x 2 down 125 cm on 12/7 surface hoar
Pit at 7000' SE aspect:
- HS = 120 cm
- ECTN 12 x 2 down 10 cm under fragile crust
- ECTN 26 x 2 down 30 cm
- ECTN 29 down 50 cm
- Bottom of the snowpack has large moist facets
- Generally more faceted than NE pit