Quick report
Rain/snow mix at the highway with no accumulation and a stout crust until we got to 1200'. We skinned to 2,300' into some pretty deep snow from the Thanksgiving storm. There were a few inches of new snow falling accompanied with light winds that began to pick up in the afternoon. We did not see any new avalanches or signs of instability but the visibility was poor all day.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- obscured
- Wind Loading
- light
- Rain Elevation
- 1000'
- Recent Snowfall
- 7cm
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Snow/rain at the parking lot with snow flurries in the afternoon higher up. Light winds began to pick up later in the day.
Snowpack
From 1500 to 2,300' we found the buried surface hoar layer 16 to 20" (40 to 50 cm) deep. From 1800 to 2,300' it was upright and 5 to 15 mm in size. This layer failed in all of our field tests. We dug two snowpits one at 2,000' on a west aspect, the other at 2,300' on a southeast aspect. They were both quick pits that focused on testing the stability of several buried weak layers. In both pits we got concerning results (ECTP 21) 50 cm deep on the buried surface hoar layer that the Thanksgiving Day storm fell on.