Quick report
Another day out watching how the snowpack is draining water and re-freezing following a very warm and wet weekend. The sets of surface crusts I observed yesterday (see ob from 11/17) had thickened a bit, but not a ton. General sense is that we put a lid on a warm, wet snowpack with those surface crusts, and that the snowpack is very gradually cooling and draining underneath. Because of this, there are some steep vapor pressure gradients across these crusts and faceting between them was notable. SAC staff: see submitted videos for a better look at this. I dug at 9,400' on a NNW aspect, where the surface crusts were ski supportable but not boot supportable and the height of snow was about 18". When I stepped off my skis I punched through the crusts into moist to wet snow nearly to the ground (submitted video). Extended column tests here produced repeated ECTP results at 12 and 15 hits, failing on the moist to wet depth hoar near the ground (the 10/25 layer), see screenshot below. I dug a number of hand pits as I ascended and descended to look at snowpack variability with elevation. Roughly, things looked worse the higher I got. The snow underneath the crusts became more faceted (upper portion, lower portion retained moisture), and the faceting between the crusts became more pronounced and worrisome. Despite the two-plus weeks of November heat and the upper elevation rains, the snowpack on shaded upper elevation slopes was not confidence-inspiring. I would not have traveled in the places I did if there had been any significant slab of snow on top of the described facets and crusts. Ski quality was great where surface crusts were supportable, and a little...tough where they weren't. Great thing about going out with the intention to look at the snow is that the skiing is just a bonus! Pretty gray out there, with almost no direct solar radiation, but a decent bit coming through clouds and bouncing around.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
I was thinking it wasn't going to rain on me today.. and then I got hit with a quick shot of fairly heavy rain just after sunset on my exit. There was very little direct solar radiation at upper elevation where I traveled today.
Avalanche
Continuing to find debris from the cycle of small wet loose avalanches that occurred during the 11/14 upper elevation rain event. These initiated on steep, rocky slopes and ran down to aprons below, stalling out as they ran into half-melted crusts that formed during rain events earlier in the season.