Quick report
Took advantage of the good stability and settled weather for a trip to the alpine in Two Lakes valley. I encountered stiff but edgable surfaces, with a limited amount of surface faceting helping soften turns. Wind slabs at upper elevations were alternately punchy, supportable, and unreactive. I dug 3 pits on my ascent route and encountered fair structure and good stability.
Very little snow remains available for transport. Several other parties were observed in Two Lakes and Delia Creek. I'm still suspect when stepping out onto steeper slopes, but today's travels increased my confidence in the current assessment.
No instabilities observed.Weather
- Air Temp
- Cold
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Cold and clear. The sun helped, but even the light breeze was biting and kept me wanting to have skin covered.
Snowpack
Dug three pits at 200' intervals between 3600' and 4000' ft on a northwest-facing slope. HS ranged from 1.5-1.8m, but overall depth was thin and variable. Encountered no concerning layers in the snowpack, and test results yielded only shallow, broken results. About 5-10cm of loose basal facets were intact in two pit locations, but these too were unreactive to tests. A thick, stiff, mid-pack slab was observed in all locations.