Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
The soft snow looked really inviting. While the snowpack didn't seem overly scary, it gave us enough signs that it needs more time to heal.
Short (4-6ft) shooting cracks occurred while breaking trail on a variety of slopes. A few longer shooting cracks occurred on NE aspects around 6200ft in slightly steeper terrain.Weather
- Cloud Cover
- scattered
- Wind Loading
- light
- Recent Snowfall
- 10
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
It turned into a really nice day! Winds dropped, showers waned, and blue sky poked through. Temperatures remained cold throughout the day. Even with the sun, we didn't find moist snow.
Snowpack
Storm totals around 18-20inches has settled into about 15-18 inches (40-45cm) of snow. This lower interface from the start of this stormy period (12/13) was the consistent issue in nearly all of our observations. Skin track tests, short shooting cracks, and tilt tests all failed on this layer. We had two small column tests in two different locations fail on isolation and easily at this interface. However, large column tests (ECTs) in the same two locations did not fail at all. (ECTX) We found 2mm facets and 4mm surface hoar at this interface.
It's not a super obvious interface. The best way to find it is to located the 12/7 melt freeze crust and look for the subtle hardness change 4-6 inches (10-15cm) above.
Other than this layer, we did not see any other layers of concern.
Wind drifting was less than expected given the overnight wind speeds. A few small drifts were noted right at ridgecrest. However, over on East Peak, we could see large wind features and scoured slopes. This highlights the impacts of the strong winds in some parts of the terrain.
Avalanche
Other than the avalanche on Crown Pt, we did not observer any significant avalanches. We did trigger a few very small loose dry sluffs.