Summit Mountain

We toured to 2,400' on Summit Mountain to check out surface conditions and the status of weak layers near the ground. We found a variety of surface conditions discussed in the snowpack section, but all of them are firm or mostly firm with some breakable tendencies. We did not get any concerning result in our stability tests, but the structure is still poor with weak snow 3' below the surface topped with a firm slab. It was breezy in the mid elevations with some snow blowing around at our pit location. Snow was being transported in the upper elevations  and the clouds were moving fast from the east. It doesn't look like Summit is forecast to get very much precipitation out of the storm on it's way tonight, but this area could use a good refresh.

There were a variety of surface conditions throughout the day. The lower elevations had a 1-2" breakable crust that was capped with large surface hoar (10mm) that was melting and bonding together. As we climbed the surface hoar became capped with a small breakable crust. Above 2,000' the surface hoar was blown over on the surface or it was sandwiched between 2 wind crust layers. We dug a snowpit at 2,400' with a total depth of 4.8' (145cm). We did not get any concerning results (CT15 SC at 110 down, ECTX, PST 80/100 END).  However, the structure is still poor with a large slab sitting on top of very weak snow 3' down from the surface. This weak layer has had 3 weeks since the last precipitation loading event so it has adjusted to the load above and it's unlikely the weight of a person could trigger it unless they found just the right thin spot.