Quick report
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Biggest danger today is the thin snowpack. Stumps, rocks and snags are barely covered. I now have 25 winters of skiing this face in January. I have never seen it so thin. </p>
Pit at 9,160 feet, east facing. Total depth 45 cm. The bottom 15 cm is all large, loose wet grains. There is a very thin ice layer just above this that I didn't notice until I forced a column to fail. It did not fail on the obvious knife-density layer that is 30 to 37 cm from the ground. It failed on the thin ice layer at 15 cm, taking all of the 30 cm above it in one chunk. I would be concerned with this layer at this elevation/aspect once more snow/weight piles up.
Snowpack
About 3 inches of settled fresh. New snow bonding well to the surface below. Easy skinning. Fun, supportable, predictable turns on low angle open slopes facing east and north from 9,200' to 8,700'. Poles almost never broke through while skinning. No collapsing or cracking. No punching through on turns. Stepping out of skis brought boot penetration to the ground. Easy conditions worthy of a few laps.