Tamarack Peak

We skied around the Tamarack Peak area today to monitor the previous weak faceted snow and assess snow coverage in this area.  A high degree of variability exists in snow coverage and distribution of the weak snow throughout this terrain.  Previous strong NE winds have scoured some wind exposed areas leaving a shallower snowpack in some starting zones.  The weak faceted snow exists in many locations on NW-N-NE aspects above 8600'.  In wind protected areas in NTL and BTL terrain depth hoar was found near the base of the snowpack.  In many areas the snowpack is mostly low density snow fist hard with little strength, but no overlying slab.  In isolated areas we found some wind slabs that formed over the weak snow, but these areas were limited in size and did not show any signs of instabilities.  Snow coverage has improved in this area from 1 week ago.  With that said, there are still many obstacles, rocks, bushes, and open water present to collide and deal with.