Soldiers - Salt Bowns Road

Today in the Soldiers, we found a persistent slab setup anywhere with lingering wind-stiffened snow surfaces on shaded mid and upper elevation slopes. At lower elevations, we found generally stable conditions and low snow depths. Snow depths generally ranged from 5-30 inches.

The recent clear skies and diurnal temperature swings have worked-over the surface snow on many shady slopes, resulting in weak sugary faceted snow making up the majority of the snowpack which may not bond well to our next storm.

No obvious signs of instability observed

Low elevations (below 7500') - minimal snow cover on southern half of the compass and shallow (10-40cm) faceted snow on the northern half of the compass. Extensive surface hoar growth and a thin breakable rain crust buried 5cm below the surface. If unchanged, this weak snow structure will not adjust to new snowfall and slab formation with the next storm.

Mid elevations (7500-9000') - Consistent 30-60cm of mostly faceted snow on NW-E shaded aspects with a distinct persistent slab structure where wind-hardened slabs currently exist above the weak basal snow. Disconnected snow coverage below 8000' on W-SE solar aspects with limited connectivity for large avalanches with eventual loading. 

Upper elevations (above 9000') - Consistent thin basal facet layer on shaded aspects above 9000'. Inconsistent basal facets on solar aspects above 9000'. At upper elevations in the Soldiers, we also found limited near surface faceting due to previously wind-compacted snow surfaces but continuous enough snow cover on all aspects for large avalanches with the next storm.

We dug a few quick pits during our tour (pictured/plotted):

• 9200' NE 25* slope - HS 53cm - ECTP14@5cm on basal facets below a wind-stiffened slab
• 8000' NW 25* slope - HS 48cm - Well developed facets throughout the entire snowpack
• 7200' NE 25* slope - HS 35cm - Well developed facets throughout with a subtle rain crust ~5cm below the surface