Weather
- Cloud Cover
- obscured
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Recent Snowfall
- 16
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Low fog with a few momentary cloud breaks. Light mist/freezing fog below 5,000ft. The temperature was near or slightly above freezing at 4,080ft most of the day. At 5,330ft, 1pm air temperature was -5.0C.
Snowpack
Snowpack depths were 50-70cm. A very minor zipper crust was on the surface (from today's freezing fog), which was unfrozen below 4,5000. 16cm of new snow (since the 13th) rests on 4-8cm of well-developed (1.5mm) facets on all but southerly aspects. A few very brittle, thin eroding crusts in the upper snowpack, were more like "crispy" weak layers than crusts. The "mid-pack" is 1 Finger to Pencil hard slabs from the "bomb cyclone" and late November storms. The bottom 14-15cm of the snowpack were Pencil+ hard melt forms.
South aspects had a supportive crust under the new snow. Even where this crust was absent, the mid-pack was supportive, with boot pen of 25cm. Based on the weak upper snowpack on most slopes and lack of an obvious Dec 7th crust, I suspect the Loup Loup area stayed mostly cold and under the early December temperature inversion. See profile from near the top of Little Buck Mtn, 5,330, NNE.