Quick report
Toured up Sugarloaf to asses snow totals, moisture content, and storm slab characteristics from yesterday's storm. At sea level, I found about 10cm of wet heavy snow that quickly became 30cm deep with just a few hundred feet of elevation gain. From 500 feet to 2200 feet, the storm snow was consistently 1 foot deep with moist stellar crystals on the surface and very little wind effect or variability in texture. Although moist, the snow had a powdery consistency. Above 1500ft on non-solar aspects I found dryer snow surfaces with moist snow underneath (about 10cm down). Storm snow was well bonded to underlying layers throughout the tour and showed no tendency for propagation. A few weaknesses 10-20cm deep within the storm snow produced low ECTN results but are expected to be short-lived as the snow settles and strengthens in the next 24 hours. A couple of weaknesses in older/deeper snow were found at 40cm down and 60cm down. - See snowpack discussion.
No signs of instability were observed in the area.Weather
- Air Temp
- 37 (sugarloaf snotel)
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- Old burried rain crust to 1500 feet.
- Recent Snowfall
- 30cm above 500 feet
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Squally weather with intermittent sunshine, low clouds, snow showers, light E - SE winds. Temperatures rising to above freezing.
Snowpack
Below 1500 feet there was 1 foot of moist storm snow overlying a thick rain crust. Total snowpack depth 2 meters. Pit results at 1000 feet included ECTP-19 SP down 60cm on rounded grains with a few flatter crystals intermixed. This is the approximate depth of buried surface hoar in the area but I was not able to identify any.
Above 1500 feet buried rain crusts fade and surface snow becomes dryer on shady aspects. Total snowpack depth 2 meters. Pit results at 2000 feet include ECTP 12 RP down 40CM - Failure below thin (5cm) windslab under recent storm snow.