Rubicon Peak

We toured on the NE and E aspects of Rubicon Peak today. On the ascent we noted signs of storm snow settlement at 4+ inches. Wind texture was present on the snow surface well below treeline. The upper 800 vertical feet or so of the peak held wind slab conditions. Ongoing areas of small amounts of blowing snow were observed along with surface wind slabs, generally less than 1 foot thick. This made for slightly breakable ski conditions near the summit with wind effect decreasing gradually with elevation. Some minor amounts of wind slab cracking were noted on ski turns. Signs of instability limited to a wind slab problem in this area. We spoke to another party who had encountered some storm slab instability in nearby terrain, triggering a 1 foot deep slab about 30' wide. On our exit down to the hwy we noted some areas where thin sun crust had formed in openings below about 6,800' that had had sun exposure this morning.

Looking west from the summit of Rubicon we noted three size D2 avalanches that appeared to have occurred naturally in the past 24 hours.