6996

With moderate expectations we headed out towards Marias Pass to check on the PS problem and confirm recent snow totals.

• Mark and I found a 4-6 cm crust  all the way up to 6850' buried under 5-10cm of recent snow. The crust was supportable while traveling with skins on throughout the day, less so when doing a bit of bootpacking in the AM.
• Southerly slopes below 6k have become a cohesive slab with wet snow nearly down to the ground under the crust from our recent warm spell.
• In an area known for it's wind slabs and cornice growth we saw no wind slab formation and minimal cornice fall from the warmup period earlier in the week.
  
  • Small wind drifted cornices were present on both sides of the ridgeline from the wind transition from SE-E-N over the past 24 hours.
  • Small pockets of wind drifted snow were present above treeline, however, they showed no signs of instability like shooting cracks. 

 

• We were able to find the Feb 3 crust on a NE aspect at 6850'. It was buried around 90 cm below the surface with mostly dry snow above. 
  • Rounding facets surrounded the crust layer.
• A 4 cm mostly supportable crust was buried about 10 cm down. New lower density snow ranged from 5-10cm deep.

 

We were able to find some nice turns at mid and upper elevations, however, there were some thin spots down low that required careful navigation. Still plenty of overhead and underfoot hazards below 5000'.

Better coverage than even a few week ago.

no instability noted during our tour

NE aspect @ 5400' HS 105cm

• supportable crust approx. 6 cm thick with 4-6cm of recent snow resting on top
• 3-4 clearly defined crust layers with moist snow throughout the snowpack
• mid elevations and lower elevations took a big loss in total snowpack over the past week

NE aspect @ 6850' HS 174cm

• supportable crust 3-4cm thick all the way up to 6850' with 5-15cm of recent snow resting on top
• small pockets of wind-transported snow that were not forming any wind slabs
• a small crust in mid-pack that was surrounded by rounding facets
• Feb. 3 crust still intact, buried 90cm below the surface. Facets rounding above and below this crust
• weak 1F- to 4F rounding facets beneath Feb. 3 crust from low early season snow totals