Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
Travel conditions are generally good. Snow coverage is still low. There are numerous weak layers that could become problematic for avalanches with enough of a load of new snow.
We saw a few small (D1) loose dry point releases on very steep ESE slopes >7,000ft in Treasure Bowl. These were sun-induced this AM and may have resulted from a small cornice fall. Slopes that we skied were warming enough to produce roller balls, but no loose avalanches. We saw what may have been the crown of a wind slab avalanche on a distant leeward, extreme feature (see photo).Weather
- Air Temp
- 23
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- light
- Recent Snowfall
- HN24 3-5cm
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
A beautiful, cool, sunny day. New snow was very light and low density. Winds backed from NNW to W throughout the day and were generally calm to light with moderate gusts at the highest ridgetops. We observed brief periods of moderate blowing snow on high peaks >7,500ft.
Snowpack
Overall, the snowpack is variable and weak. HS ranged 100-150cm. Boot pen went well into old snow, 70-90cm.
Surface and upper snowpack: Surfaces in the shade and on lower-angle SE and SW were dry, low-density new snow. We observed a thin, sub-surface zipper crust on steeper SE-SW slopes with classic near-surface faceting (0.3mm) in the top 2cms (see photo). The top 20cm was recent storm snow.
Numerous crusts, some with associated weak layers, punctuate the snowpack. The Dec 30th crust (sun, temp, and rain) was thin (1cm), brittle, and ↓20cm below the surface on SW-SE slopes. It was most prominent on steeper due S aspects and below 5,500ft. We still found the Dec 30th up to at least 6,700ft, but it became more ephemeral and less predictable. A more prominent, 5cm thick crust (Dec 10th?) was found roughly 50cm below the surface. We found a thin layer of 0.5mm facets just above it. Both of these crusts produced repeatable sudden failures in small column tests, some on isolation.
The lower half of the snowpack: It consisted of frozen melt forms from December AR events in various eroding stages (faceting). We found the remnants of vertical ice bodies.