Quick report
Surface hoar growth happened overnight with clear skies and calm winds in protected areas. Overall coverage looked decent but as I probed it was only <1-3ft deep at most. About 5" of new snow over a hard crust, dense below and the lack of wind left surface conditions untouched. The shallow and variable snowpack hasn't covered up many rocks and hidden obstacles. Today it appeared that what coverage out there is the "new base" and what falls on top determines future instabilities. It's early season and important to inspect gear.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Recent Snowfall
- 10
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Below freezing temperatures sunshine and calm.
Snowpack
- 4-5" of soft snow from sea-level with a supportable crust starting at 1,500'
- Total snowpack of 6-12" at 3,000' on an E-asepct and anywhere from 1-3ft on the ridge at 4,000' N-aspect
- Surface hoar was out in protected areas 3-5mm
- A few old signs of wind loading near ridgelines
Avalanche
- Size
- D2 R1
- Type
- WL
- Aspect
- E
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 4000 ft
Viewed old debris piles below steep chutes. These loose wet slides probably occurred during Nov. 23-26th when freezing levels rose to 4,000' after 25" of new snow Nov. 20-21st.