Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
- Collapsing
- Observed
We went on a very long tour of Waterhouse NW ridge. The new snow was low density, but the shear amount of new snow -- between 44 and 82 cm -- made trail breaking conditions very difficult. We had three trailbreakers taking turns, and even so, it took us a record four hours to ascend to the peak. On the way, we measured the new snow, the HS, and looked for a graupel layer between the old and new snow but were unable to find it. We otherwise did not find instabilities between the old and new snow. Once at the ridge, we jumped on some cornices that had formed during this storm. They were mostly stubborn -- one took eight stomps to break. Another broke more easily, but none propagated very far -- at most a couple of inches. Descending was also slower than usual, mainly due to the amount of snow. On lower angle terrain, it was hard going but not bad on a track. For the first time this season, we all transitioned back to skinning at Grass Lake and made it back to the car in complete white-out conditions.
We were able to collapse a couple of small cornices at the ridge of Waterhouse. But they were mostly stubborn and difficult to collapse. There was also almost no propagation. They moved down about 2 in at most.Weather
- Air Temp
- 30s
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Recent Snowfall
- 44-82
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Starting out at 10:45 am, the clouds were scattered, and it was snowing lightly periodically. Sometimes there were patches of blue sky and sun. Starting at about 2:30 pm, it began snowing more steadily. Once we were back on Grass Lake around 3:30 pm, there were complete white-out conditions. It was snowing about 2 cm per hour when we left the field at about 4:00 pm.
Snowpack
On the Lake, there was 44 cm new snow. At 8000 ft, HS was 140-150 cm. 8500 ft: HS 210 cm with 75 cm new snow. 9000 ft: HS 260 cm, 60 cm new. 9400 ft: HS 281 cm, 82 cm new. Ski penetration was 32 cm. The new snow is very low density; we found stellar dendrites in most places on the surface. Wind effects were moderate on the ridge. We searched for the graupel layer between the new and old snow interface but were not able to find it in this location.