Quick report
Right side up storm snow sitting on a firm crust. Wind effected snow is only slightly harder than the snow below. Excellent riding conditions.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 32
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- light
- Rain Elevation
- 3500
- Recent Snowfall
- 45
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Light snow, 1-2" of accumulation during my time out, Light SW winds with moderate gusts. In the late afternoon, it stopped snowing and became partly cloudy.
Snowpack
At 5000' on a west aspect, I found 45cm/18" of new snow sitting atop the 2/26 melt-freeze crust. The new storm snow was right side up. A few density changes in the new snow failed in compression and extended column tests (break and resistant planar). My layer of greatest concern was a layer of preserved precip particles 35 cm/1 ft down. This layer was fist hard with 4F snow above and 1F below.
The snow on exposed ridgelines was only slightly harder than the snow below it.