Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
The snowpack was wet and saturated until I reached the snowline at 4500 ft. Above this, the snowpack grew progressively drier and deeper with more wind-affected surfaces present. Strong winds from various directions productively drifted new snow into reactive slabs ranging from 1-2 ft thick.
Instability in this area was confined to wind loaded features.Weather
- Air Temp
- Below freezing above 5000 ft
- Cloud Cover
- obscured
- Wind Loading
- intense
- Rain Elevation
- 4500
- Recent Snowfall
- 3 inches
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Winds felt strong from the trailhead. Once above 4500 ft, these strong winds blew from various directions (SE-W/NW) and productively drifted available snow, which increased with elevation. I only observed small amounts around 5000 ft, but once above 6000 ft the amount of snow available for transport increased significantly.
Snowpack
HS with elevation:
3800 ft: 50-60 cm
4600 ft: 105 cm
5700 ft: 180 cm
6100 ft:250 cm
Below 4500 ft: The snowpack is wet and saturated at these lower elevations. Thin cover and early season obstacles are still present.
4500-6000 ft: The surface started feeling crusty as I crested into the burn around 4500 ft. This crust was from the short-lived, 12/27 rain event and extended to roughly 5800 ft before fully fading out. . While this crust did exist, there was just enough new snow over it (1-2 inches) for active drifting to occur. Wind-loaded pockets were shallow and somewhat stubborn with skin track tests at these lower elevations. These wind-drifted pockets became thicker (1-2 ft) as I gained above 55000 ft.
Above 6000 ft: I found a fully dry snowpack with no recent surface crust. The ski quality was better, but still quite heavy and wind affected as you'd expect with the high wind speeds.
In a test profile on a NE aspect @ 5800 ft I found an HS 180 cm. Roughly 60 cm of recent storm snow since Christmas sat over the solstice crust. Snowpack tests produced failures within the new storm snow( 20-30 cm below surface) but failed to propagate with longer columns. In this area, I found the new snow bonding well to the solstice crust.