Wet bottom, powder top:)

southrockies , Wednesday 18th December, 2024 6:15PM

We got soaking wet in the parking lot, but it switched to snow around 1400 m. With 30 centimeters or more of new snow overnight, increasing temperatures, and the wind forecasted to pick up in the afternoon, we kept our terrain choice conservative. We decided to play on the snowmobiles and poke around in the snowpack on skis in the mellow treeline terrain around Rolling Hills Cabin. We got several whumphs under our feet in the sparse trees just above the cabin. We saw a few small natural avalanches on steep cutbanks beside the road. Glad we found ways to have fun while the snowpack adjusts to the new load. Our soggy bums were thankful for the well stocked woodbox in the cabin:)

A couple interfaces in the upper snowpack were breaking, but there is not enough slab properties for them to propage. 3-5 mm surface hoar 60 cm down was unreactive in an extended column test, but broke when we non-standardly wedged the shovel behind the column.