Quick report
When I arrived at the trailhead at 2:55 pm, it was raining. By 3:05 pm, it was snowing. I ascended the slope in search of the rain/snow line from earlier in the day, but it's likely above 8400 ft, where I turned around. At 8250 ft on a N slope, I did a hand shear test, and it failed on a somewhat resistant faceted layer at 28 cm down. I repeated the test at 8350 ft, and it again failed, more easily, at 28cm down. At both these locations, there was 6 cm new fairly heavy wet snow, then a thicker, wetter rain saturated layer of 22 cm, followed by this less consolidated faceted layer, which is 12 cm thick, then very dry facets underneath. As I pivoted to continue, my downhill ski easily slid down about 3 ft on the top layer. Very rough conditions skinning up with clumping on the skins and on top of the skis. Descending was also difficult with super grabby snow. It was still snowing when I left at 5 pm at a rate of 1 cm per hour. The snow turned to rain at Big Meadow trailhead at 7300 ft.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 36 and falling
- Cloud Cover
- obscured
- Wind Loading
- intense
- Rain Elevation
- >8400
- Recent Snowfall
- 2-6
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
It snowed between 3-5pm all the way up to 8400 ft. Strong W wind the entire period.
Snowpack
Heavy loading today by rain then wet snow of previously faceted snow. I sought the rain/snow line from earlier today but I don't think I ever found it.