Quick report
Goals for the day were to hopefully avoid the winds, score some fun riding, and assess the base of the snowpack. Completed all three! Toured from Lake Mary road up into the lakes basin to 10,000'. Started the day at 9am with light to moderate snowfall, calm wind, and little visibility out to the Mammoth Crest. As the morning progressed, the clouds burned off and the snowfall stopped, leaving a nice 2-3 inches of powder. For the rest of the morning, the winds were calm to light, and little to no snow was observed flagging off of the ridgelines. Around 1400 a light north wind with moderate gusts began picking up. By evening, we all were seeing the flagging off of the ridgelines. Snow was in great shape on all aspects we traveled. Some solar aspects had a very thick crust below the fresh snow, but unnoticeable on the ride down. A snowpit at 9800' revealed an almost entirely right side up snowpack until the bottom 20 cm. No signs of instability were observed in our travel zone.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- scattered
- Wind Loading
- light
- Recent Snowfall
- 8-10
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
The weather had some variety today, and the drop downs considers the AM hours. By noon it was bluebird and calm. Then as the afternoon rolled on wind loading became intense and the outdoors began looking unpleasant.
Snowpack
Dug a pit at 9,800; on a 32 degree north aspect looking for the basal facets. Ladies and gentlemen, we got em! HS was 200cm, 0cm is surface. - 0-95cm; a gradual F-4F-1F - 95-97cm; Pencil/Knife rain crust - 97-180cm; P - 180cm-200cm(ground); 1F facets. Stability tests were numerous and with some fun results... ECTN6 @20cm A deep tap ECT 15cm above the rain crust resulted in ECTX. A deep tap CT 15cm above the PWL resulted in CTM 14