Carson Pass South

I toured out to Elephant's Back this morning. East winds were strong in the parking lot on Carson Pass. While the winds were reduced a bit while traveling through the trees they seemed to grow stronger throughout the day with occasional gusts in exposed areas that required some bracing to avoid getting pushed around.  Wind sculpted snow was present within the trees and wind scoured snow was widely present outside the trees. On the steeper terrain that I observed closely winds were scouring snow almost as much as they appeared to be creating wind slab. This was my first tour here this season and while the fresh snow made everything look pretty, coverage is still very thin. I was able to look down Elephant's Back bowl and while continuous snow runs top to bottom, grass and bushes are poking out in many areas with rocks lurking randomly as well.  With the generally low tide conditions there is a lot of variability in the snowpack. 

Ideal snow pit locations are limited right now in this area. I found a spot a little below the ridge and out of the worst of the wind and blowing snow but it had more rocks at the ground than I'd like. I found about 15 cms on new snow, the top of which had been beaten up by the wind and turned into slab, some older snow and crusts, and then weak faceted snow near the ground. I did several Extended Column Tests and got propagation. There was an obvious weak layer just under the wind slab on the new snow which propagated. The facets and depth hoar at the ground also failed with propagation.

Weak layers exist deeper in the snowpack. I found depth hoar at the ground and facets above that. Overall snow coverage is still limited. There is grass and shrubs visible in the bowl on Elephants back and many exposed rocky areas where wind has stripped all the snow.