Virginia Lakes

We toured at Virginia Lakes today and encountered cold temps and strong winds blowing recent snow around. We traveled up to near tree line terrain on a low-angle E/NE aspect and observed shallow surface cracking in snow underfoot.  Certain features appeared to be getting wind-loaded, but there was a lot of scouring occuring and redistributed snow in the alpine.

Many of the obvious avalanche paths in this vicinity appear to have slid during this past avalanche cycle and have large debris piles visible but recovered with snow. We observed one slab avalanche from recent storms down low on the NE facing slope directly above Big Virginia Lake.

On a NE aspect at 10,400' we found 4F facets down 80cm from surface with no crust directly above.  Overlying snow had F down to 4F+ hardness in this particular location. Probing around nearby we could feel a crust over these facets in some adjacent spots. Extended column tests did not produce propagation on this layer here.

By afternoon winds had increased and temps stayed cold. South facing slopes had no or minimal natural rollers and surfaces appeared to remain powdery where not hit by winds.

On a NE aspect at 10,400' we found 4F facets down 80cm from surface with no crust directly above.  Overlying snow had F down to 4F+ hardness in this particular location. Probing around nearby we could feel a crust over these facets in some adjacent spots. Extended column tests did not produce propagation on this layer here.