Carter/Crescent Lake

We walked in our winter boots to Carter and Crescent Lakes to check out the snowpack on the very southern end of the Summit Zone. There is a lot more snow on the mountains on the east side of the lakes than the west (just like in the Summit Lake area). There was a lot of old glide avalanche debris especially on east and south facing slopes. There was flagging off the high peaks during the day from northeast wind and there was evidence of wind effect everywhere. We dug a pit at 1,400' and found a mostly strong snowpack at that elevation with lots of knife hard crusts. There was a small wind slab on top with facets below that could be a problem at higher elevations where the wind slab is thicker. The riding conditions did not look good at higher elevations.

We dug a pit at 1,400' on a south aspect on the north side of Crescent Lake. There was just under 2' (54cm) of snow in this location. There was surface hoar on the surface, which is just fine right now, but could become a problem later. We did not go above this elevation so we aren't sure how high the surface hoar exists in this area. There was a 2.5" wind slab under the surface hoar with facets below. The wind slab is thin at this elevation, but where it is thicker in the upper elevations this set up with a slab over weak snow could be a problem. The wind slab failed while I was cutting it, but we did not get any concerning test results (ECTX). Below the wind slab/facet combination is a strong snowpack with a mix of knife hard crusts and facets.