Quick report
The cloud cover and breeze made it feel cooler than expected, and seemed to prevent most crusts from softening for most of the day. The conditions were variable versions of crust and fairly consistent regardless of tree cover or aspect. Downhill skiing/riding was more enjoyable for the top 100ft of the descent. We did not find any soft snow on the surface. No observed signs of instability
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- 8200
- Recent Snowfall
- trace
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
Partly to mostly cloudy with light W/SW winds in exposed high points. No precipitation and became more sunny in early afternoon than in the morning.
Snowpack
Surfaces were variable, including rain crust, sun crust, windboard, breakable crusts, and occasional wet surface snow. On wind-protected north facing terrain, the crust was thin enough to dig a pole into the loose facets that had recently developed on the surface in this area. We dug a demonstration pit on north facing terrain near treeline and found a 5cm crust that appeared to have been formed by a previous wind event, then turned into a crust by the recent temperatures and wet precipitation on 2/6. This crust was thicker as one moved uphill and closer to the clearly wind-affected ridge. The crust overlaid facets and was not bonded particularly well. We observed a single CTEasy sudden planar in 3 taps on this layer. The layer did not show propagation in an extended test (ECTX) and appeared to be of variable thickness and varying stages of decomposition. Below the fist-hard facets, we observed a right side up 4-finger to pencil harness snowpack down ~1 meter from the surface.