Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
Starting at 5,300' there was about 3"-4" of new, wetter snow. As I skied to the ridge at about 6,600' the snow depth varied from 3"-4" to a foot depending on how sheltered the area was. Snow was better up high. Cracking under skis, no propagation. It started snowing late morning and continued through the day with dense fog as well. Light breeze. Not much accumulation. Dug a pit: West facing, ~6,500', sheltered trees. Total snow depth 84". Pit depth: 35" -just to the big ice. Lots of smaller ice layers in that 3 feet! CT 11@ 10+", clean shear on faceting crystals. CT 24@ 20", clean shear. The snow directly on the big ice layer at ~35" had bonded very well, couldn't budge it. Summary: I skied a WNW sheltered run with decent (B-grade) snow, but variable. Minor sluffing on steeper pitches. I would worry about getting onto a steeper wind loaded connected slope and waking the 20" crust slab. Poor group management or a machine is more likely to trigger that layer right now.