Quick report
Walking towards Friendship Pass, we encountered a variety of snow conditions, including shallow areas of soft sugary snow, areas of breakable wind crusts, and unedgable wind drifts. Near ridge tops and in alpine terrain, we could see snow blowing with moderate northerly winds, which did not seem to be building any new drifts. Firm surfaces provided the best skiing, but these slopes were not consistent, and we encountered plenty of unsupported wind crusts.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- light
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Mostly sunny skies became mostly cloudy by mid-afternoon as very light snowfall began. Winds were light to moderate from the N.
Snowpack
Surfaces: We encountered a variety of surfaces, ranging from soft non-wind-affected facets to unsupportable wind crusts to heavy, stiff, and supportable slabs of snow formed by strong winds.
Mid and Lower snowpack: Shallow slopes, especially in more sheltered areas, were comprised entirely by a homogenous pile of weak sugary faceted snow. In isolated areas, we were able to find a layered snowpack, where several generations of faceted old wind slabs rested above weak snow near the ground. We did not do any stability tests, as they would likely be inconclusive due to stiff knife hard wind slabs near the surface, armoring any weak snow below.
Avalanche
We saw a few very small avalanches among the cliffs above our skin track. These likely happened near the beggining or during last weekend's strong winds.