Quick report
The wind was redistributing the several inches of new snow and loading leeward terrain, but there wasn't enough new snow to be of much concern as of this morning.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 20
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- light
- Recent Snowfall
- 5
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Light snowfall (S-1) with periods of moderate snowfall (S-2) throughout the morning. Light to moderate winds at all elevations.
Snowpack
Dug a pit on an east facing slope at 9,700'. HS = 145cm (~4.5 ft). The upper 40cm (15”) of the snowpack contains a somewhat upside-down structure with 30cm (12”) of increasing hardness (F-1F) snow sitting above softer (F) snow. An ECT yielded partial propagation across the column at this hardness change. Some avalanches may fail at this interface during the upcoming storm, or the instability may heal quickly with the added weight. Time will tell.
No propagation was observed on the early December facet interface, which is down about 92cm (3ft) at this location. Overall, the strength observed in the lower 2/3s of the snowpack is relatively high, however, the structure remains poor (4 out of 5 lemons). It will be important to track this interface as it becomes loaded by a significant amount of water (3"+) over the next three days.