Quick report
Compared to my last tour to Mount Brown in December, today felt more like winter.
- Ski turns in the 3 to 5 inches of powder on a supportable crust from 7400 feet to 5900 feet, may have been the best turns we've had all season.
- Below 5800 feet, surface obstacles encouraged us to ski down the trail to 4700 feet. From there, back to the trailhead we alternated between snowplowing on dirt and hiking.
- Wind drifts were relatively small and non-reactive along the ridge. Recent northern winds likely eroded the typical (southwesterly) drifting.
- As reported, southern aspects had a stout crust under the new snow. However, we did not observe sluffing or experience challenging skinning conditions.
- Below 4700 feet, snow depths ranged from zero snow to 35 cm (13 inches).
Weather
- Air Temp
- 32 to 30
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- 2000 feet
- Recent Snowfall
- 3 to 25 cm
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Mostly cloudy conditions limited our views of the surrounding peaks. S1 snowfall rates until 1230pm. No winds throughout the day, even at upper elevations.
Snowpack
Snow profiles:
- 7,447 feet, East aspect, HS: 170 cm
- No propagation in ECT.
- 25 cm of recent low-density snow (unconsolidated), 5 cm Knife hard crust.
- 12/22 crust buried 100 cm from the surface.
- Basal facets
- 7,283 feet, South aspect, HS: 140 cm
- No propagation in ECT.
- 16 cm new snow above 1cm melt-freeze crust (recent sun crust), above 1 finger 15 cm consolidated snow over 10-15cm Knife-hard ice crust
- snowpack moist to the ground. 12/22 crust is difficult to identify.
- basal moist facets.