Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
I found weak snow below this weekend's storm on SW, W, and NW facing slopes. Despite this weak interface, no obvious signs of instability were found at middle elevations, but poor visibility kept many slopes obscured. Along ridgelines, westerly winds were forming small reactive drifts 1-4" deep.
Along and near ridgelines, cracking was observed in recently formed drifts.Weather
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Recent Snowfall
- ~30 cm since Friday 12/13
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Steady S-1 snowfall all day and overcast skies. Light-moderate winds were observed at middle-elevation ridgelines.
Snowpack
New Snow: Near the parking lot and along the Boundary Creek Rd. 25cm of snow has fallen since Friday, increasing to ~35cm at 8300'.
Mid-pack Weak Snow & Basal Weak Snow: On S, SW,W, WNW, and E facing slopes at lower and middle elevations, I found facets, surface hoar, and crusts on solar slopes below this weekend's storm.
On an SW aspect at 8300' recent snowfall is sitting on a crust and thin layer of facets 54cm from the ground and propagated in stability tests (HS: 95 cm, ECTP 11 @ 54). The bottom of the slab above has 10cm of 4F snow, with F to F- powdery snow above. Weak snow near the ground was faceted and moist.
On a WNW aspect at 8000' 30 cm of recent storm snow is above a thin layer of faceted snow and small grains of surface hoar. The slab above has not consolidated and is still soft. Without a slab, this layer did not propagate (HS: 93 cm, ECTN 10). At the bottom of the snowpack, 10 cm of moist facets are softer and larger than those observed on the SW aspect.
Where wind has previously scoured solar slopes along ridgelines, new snow was bonding well to the crust below.