Tamarack Peak

The new storm snow provided a nice refresh to the area. Probing on the ascent, I found between 30 and 34 cm of new snow. The surface layer was usually a wind crust that varied in thickness between 1-4 cm. Below that, there was the new snow, and then an impenetrable ice hard and thick layer. In the first hour, between about 9:30-10:30 am, the surface crust was supportable, but it began to break down, especially in the sun. In the Hourglass Bowl during our first descent at 10:45 am, the skis broke through very slightly, but it was still good skiing with forward pressure, especially on N/NE aspects. On other aspects and further down, it was grabbier breakable crust. We did find some soft and cold unconsolidated snow but only in small areas sheltered by trees and only on N aspects. 

Cracking of the wind crust only occurred early on with some stamping. As the day wore on, the crusts began releasing on steep slopes but only with a depth of 1-4 cm from the surface.

There was new snow between 30-34 cm. At the peak, there was only 20 cm. There were crusts in terrain affected by either wind or sun. The crusts were largely supportable in the first hour, especially those in the shade. Approaching midday, it became breakable crust. Some soft snow existed on N aspects in tree protected areas. Meltout was already occurring on south faces. However, we did not observe any wet loose instabilities today.

The deposition of snow on the trees indicated prior winds mainly from the NW and E directions. Notably, there were no cornices on the ridges, likely due to the lack of significant snow for transport.