Quick report
Photo of a large rollerball that was 6' x 6' on a steep northeast facing slope at 9,000' in elevation, this was from a few days ago. We also observed old wet loose avalanches on west, east and southeast facing slopes.
Photo of an east facing cornice lined ridgeline, 10,400' in elevation
Photo showing overcast to obscured skies in upper White Pine Drainage
Today, we had low expectations for what we might find in the backcountry. We found supportable conditions on all aspects and elevations from 7,700'-11,000'. Due north above 10,000' was a soft old snow surface with thin wind board crust that was breakable, but didn't impact ski turns. The new snow bonded well to all the old snow surfaces where traveled. Temperatures increased as we lost elevation, but it was snow the entire time. In the upper elevation terrain the new snow was rimed and we talked about how there might be a chance of lightning today with the frontal passage and were ready to back off the exposed ridgelines before snowfall rates increased. Today, where we traveled we found an overall LOW danger with the primary concerns being new snow and wind-drifted snow and there wasn't enough new or wind-drifted snow during our tour to elevate the danger.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Shallow loose dry sloughing on steep north facing slopes around 10,800'. This was manageable in steep terrain and made for better surface travel. </p>
Light snow started around 10AM and continued through the tour picking up intensity as the morning went on. New snow was high density and seemed to bond very well to the old snow surface on due north facing at 11,000' and on the old melt-freeze crust down to 7,600'. Old snow surface was a 1"-3" supportable melt-freeze crust with moist rounds underneath.