Solomon gulch NE slopes.
Quick report
No signs of current instability were observed in this location. All observed avalanches occurred durring the last storm cycle or the preceding wind event and were several days old at least.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 19 on lake, 30 at 2800ft
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- Burried rain crust to 1800ft 10 to 20 cm down
- Recent Snowfall
- No new snow in several days
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Clear, calm, and dry conditions throughout the area. Continued temperature inversion with temps approaching 0 deg C up high. Chilly in valley bottoms.
Snowpack
At Lake level snow depth measured 200cm Surface snow was a mix of thin windslab and softer snow topped with a fresh layer of 2-4mm surface hoar. Near-surface facets were visible in the top 10cm of snow at these lower elevations. A thin and breakable rain crust was found at depths of 10-25cm from Lake level to 1800 ft.
Above 1800 on E-NE slopes the rain crust disappears and surface snow becomes noticeable deeper. As elevation was gained surface hoar and near-surface facets were no longer present. Snow surfaces included wind-affected storm snow and various areas of mostly thin non-supportable windslabs. Boot penetration averaged 35cm. A 130cm deep pit was dug at 2800 feet into a consolidated and homogenous snowpack. Test results include ECTN23 @ 30 down on old storm snow. The total snow depth was 270cm at the pit location.
Avalanche
No recent avalanche activity was observed although many D2.5 slides had released during our last storm. Most of these were wet loose avalanches triggered by wind slabs that released at higher elevations. Other old avalanches included a few deep wind slabs 3ft+ deep and were found at mid-elevations.