Weather
- Air Temp
- 34
- Cloud Cover
- obscured
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- 8,000 +
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
Low cloud deck between 5,000' and 7500'. Overcast skies above that level. I was able to see the top of wing ridge at times when it started to break up. Temps above freezing. Light and Variable wind.
Snowpack
Solar aspects below 7,000' have seen significant snow loss and bare ground is spreading fast following a few very warm days. At this lower elevation, the new snow from the last week of March has shrunk down to about 4 inches and is saturated at the 3/22 Melt Freeze Crust. The crust itself has seen water percolating through it and has weakened its strength at this elevation. I got a non-planar break failure on the 15th tap below this melt-freeze crust in my compression test. I would guess that above treeline, this crust is still supportable to the weight of a rider on northerly aspects. I found a layer of Graupel snow 40 cm down. It was not reactive in my compression test, but did shear off with moderate force in a shovel shear test. A strong pencil hard mid pack exists, with another melt freeze crust (P- hard) about 3 feet from the surface. I found weaker snow near the ground :-(.