Quick report
Snow coverage changed significantly as we gained elevation. While there were still plenty of obstacles, coverage was pretty remarkable for late November. The information we gathered today didn't highlight any major layers of concern in the snowpack, but that's just one location.
No obvious signs of instability were observed.Weather
- Air Temp
- 30
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- light
- Rain Elevation
- 2500
- Recent Snowfall
- 12
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Near constant very light snow throughout my tour. Winds were only really noticeable along ridges above 5000ft. In these locations light to moderate drifting had occurred.
Snowpack
The snowpack really changed dramatically as we ascended from the trailhead (2600ft) to our high point at 5200ft. Down low the snowpack is extremely thin (0-4inches 0-10cm), but it increased quickly as we gained elevation. See below for average measured snow depths.
Several inches of new snow was well bonded to the 11/24 crust. How much new snow sat over the crust also depended on elevation, with a trace to 1 inch below 3000ft and 4-6 inches (10-15cm) above 4000 ft. The 11/24 crust was generally strong and didn't break under our skis, but it wasn't supportable enough to prevent us from popping through in our boots.
In the several areas we dug into the snow, we could find several crusts and older snow from earlier in November. All this rested on rather strong basal melt forms.
Snow blown out of the trees and some minor drifting along open areas were the only real signs of wind-transported snow. Where we traveled, these were on exposed ridges above 5000ft, but we didn't find any wind slabs. However, that might have changed if we could have traveled higher.
Elev. (ft): Height of Snow (cm)
5000ft: 110-140cm/ 15cm new
4500ft: 100-120cm/10-15cm new
4000ft: 75cm/10-12cm new
3500ft: 40-45cm/ 8cm new
3000: 30-35cm/ 3cm new
Avalanche
No recent avalanches were observed.