Quick report
- Collapsing
- isolated
There is less snow on the mountainsides in Virginia Lakes than when I was here last week. Apparently the 100mph winds recorded in the Mammoth area did not miss Virginia Creek either. Above treeline and in exposed areas at any elevation most snow has been removed, except in very sheltered gullies and other depressions. However, there is more snow on the valley floor, especially in the forests. I noticed few signs of instability on my tour between 9800' and 11,000', just one localized collapse on an east-facing slope at 10,300'. I noticed a transition in the recent snow as I gained elevation. What began as soft unconsolidated snow in the meadows near the trailhed eventually became supportable and then finally disappeared or was piled into impenetrable drifts in the alpine. None of the wind-deposited snow I found indicated wind slab instability. Where there is snow above the treeline the persistent weak layers are underneath knife and pencil-hard layers of wind-board from recent storms.