Quick report
Traveled up to 9000'. Snow accumulation from the past 24 hours totals 6 - 10" of low-density snow. On west aspects above 8600', all the new snow has been stripped to a crust that formed on 2/4 from unusually high temperatures. This crust is present on west aspects as high as 9000'. Winds from the past several days have formed fresh cornices above East aspects. A few of these cornices have small natural failures that easily ran down steep slopes but did not entrain additional snow. We noted some additional signs of wind-loading from the ridgeline including pillows, blowing snow, and small stiff slabs on east aspects. We did not find any signs of instability on the west or north aspects below 9000'. Due to a 9000' cloud layer, we were not able to visualize higher slopes. Wind speeds increased from the west around noon and started to actively transport small amounts of snow.
Digging into a NW aspect at ~8400', we found the total height of the snowpack was 210cm (~7 feet) deep. We dug down to the facet layer that was buried on 1/31 and noted that the layer appeared to be increasing in hardness (currently 1 F - in this location). An extended column test in this area yielded an ECTN 17 directly below the melt-freeze crust 44cm (17 inches) down. A PST on the 1/31 drought layer resulted in a PSTend 55/100.
The only signs of instability we observed were fresh cornice growth that had started to fail naturally in small pieces.Weather
- Air Temp
- 20F at the parking lot in the morning and afternoon. Cold temperatures at upper elevations.
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- light
- Recent Snowfall
- 14
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
20F at the parking lot in the morning. Riding into the drainage temperatures remained similar. A noticeable temperature drop around 8500' at 1:00 PM. Winds were moderate from the west above 8200'. Cloud cover persisted over the mountains but valleys cleared to blue sky by noon. No significant precipitation.