Quick report
I toured up to Lockwood Point today to take a look at the middle elevation snowpack in this area. Overall, the snowpack appeared relatively strong, and I did not observe any signs of instability while traveling around. In a snowpit on a NE aspect at 6300 ft, weak layers near the ground were rounding and did not produce results in snowpack tests. There were weak layers present near the surface of the snowpack, but the slab above them was not thick enough to be a problem yet. I observed near surface facets buried 10 cm deep, and in some areas, there was surface hoar resting on the near surface facets.
Only the most exposed areas around Lockwood Point were wind affected. I suspect that higher elevation areas are more wind affected. Sunny aspects were crusted under the 10 cm of recent snow.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- scattered
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 10
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
It was a nice day with periods of sunshine between the clouds, average temperatures, and light winds. I didn't experience any snowfall but observed snow falling in several other places in the distance, especially in the direction of the Swan Range.
Snowpack
I dug a snow pit on a northeast aspect at 6300 ft. Snowpack tests did not produce any propagating results. There were nonpropagating results 10 cm deep where the recent snow lies on near surface facets (ECTN7). The entire upper part of the snowpack is faceting, and I observed developed near surface facets just below the 10 cm of recent snow. The middle of the snowpack was generally right side up, other than some relatively minor hardness stepoffs. Near the ground, there was an unreactive layer of 1-2 mm rounding facets that was moist in spots.