Dirtyface Mountain

We enjoyed a sunny day with decent moist snow over a crust skiing in mellow terrain. We had minimal avalanche concerns and saw no signs of instability besides minor rollerballs. However, we did leave the field before the true heat of the day. The snowpack is still wet with some weaker layers, but is capped by a thick, supportable crust on this eastern aspect at mid elevations. 

Snow Surface Observations: Snow surfaces at lower elevations were refrozen and supportable to boots and snowmobiles. At mid elevations, we found 5cm of new snow over a crust that was supportable by boots and skis in open areas. Areas under the forest canopy were partially refrozen and supportable to skis but not boots. Near the ridgeline at around 5300ft we found small wind drifts up to 10cm deep. The recent snow was well bonded to the underlying crust and becoming moist in the sun. However, we could only produce small rollerballs with ski cuts that didn't entrain additional wet snow. 

Snowpack Summary: We dug a profile at 5380ft on an east aspect. Below the 5cm of storm snow, there is 25cm of refrozen melt-forms from the recent atmospheric river. Below that, is another 15cm of melt forms that are still wet. The snowpack then transitions to moist, consolidated, rounded grains down to another melt-freeze crust that marks the upper extent of the January Drought Layer buried 65cm deep. Overall, we found a favorable snowpack structure, although we found some weaknesses with stability tests in layers that were still wet and below the JDL crust.   

Height of Snow: 220cm