Quick report
These are excellent traverse conditions. We found mostly chalky windboard in the alpine, with sheltered pockets of soft near-surface facets. Between 4800 and 6000', where temps have stayed below freezing for the last 1.5 weeks or so, we found right-side-up supportable snow and fast recycled pow (near-surface facets and 20-40mm surface hoar).
None observed today. Multiple old D2-D2.5 avalanches from at least 2 weeks ago, as previously observed.Weather
- Air Temp
- 19
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
Popped above the inversion around 6000'. Winds were light and northerly.
Snowpack
20-40 cm consistent height of snow above 4500'. In the alpine, winds have stripped it down to rock in many places, while drifts can be 150cm deep.
7900' NW. HS109 with the 1cm thick ice-hard Jan 3 melt freeze crust down 39cm. We found a 1cm thick layer of 1F-hard small rounding facets below this crust, but we weren't able to effectively isolate it as an ECT.
7000' E. HS59, PST100/100 on 4F+ hard facets between crusts down 24cm. This is a stable result, which surprised us given how shallow and cold that snowpack was.