Quick report
Widespread surface hoar (2-3mm) observed on Dec.20. Quickly destroyed by sun, but likely persisted on shadowed aspects. Soon to be buried?
No instabilities observed in the field. Small Wet Loose deposits were visible below alpine solar slopes, from previous days of anomalous warming aloft.Weather
- Air Temp
- 38F @ 6600'
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 2-3 cm
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
A beautiful winter Solstice! Many savvy local skiers out to celebrate the day. We were happy to soak in the sunshine and warmth. Very light southerly winds. Clouds began creeping over from the W by 2-3 PM.
Snowpack
About 2-3cm fairly dense but dry storm snow with widespread 2-3mm SH, which persisted through the day in shadowed areas.
Ski pen ranged from 10-20cm and surfaces became moist in the sun.
A test pit at 6600' on a NE aspect showed:
A snow depth of 120cm, with the Dec.7 crust down 50cm (5 cm thick, P hard). Well-bonded to overlying snowpack.
Upper snowpack consisted of 20cm F hard DF's over 4F hard rounds. A layer of decomposing SH is embedded within the F hard upper layer, yielding resistant results in stability tests.
The Dec.10 zipper extends to ~6000' or so in this drainage, overlain with ~5-10cm recent storm snow.
Overall fast travel and good to fair ski quality - exceeding expectations!
Avalanche
Fairly widespread evidence of previous Wet Loose cycles on alpine solars, various iterations, all sz.2 or smaller.