Quick report
After a pretty active period of all kinds of weather, today was sunny and quiet. Mild temps, light wind, great visibility, and much-improved skiing conditions. Faceting is still evolving throughout the pack, and crusts are breaking down from moisture being sucked out of them. Some small surface hoar formed at the upper end of mid elevations and into above tree line terrain, but hadn't made much progress before the sun helped beat it down.
Very few signs of instability today, although I stuck to the south side of the compass and avoided steep slopes and the north end. Following a few days of considerable ratings that had higher wind speeds and visbile snow transport, today showed that the southern end of the forecast area is starting to trend towards improved stability.Weather
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Rain Elevation
- Not observed
- Recent Snowfall
- No new snow since 12/27
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
A gorgeous bluebird day, allowing for great visibility and views of the surrounding mountain ranges. Light wind from the southwest, and temperatures were milder following the arctic cold snap.
Snowpack
Today I stuck to the south side of the compass. Snow depths were 63cm at 6000', with 28cm on the grinch crust in a sheltered location. At 6200' I targeted a wind-loaded, pillowed feature that had a depth of 120cm with 32cm above the grinch crust. I did not get any propagating results, but I did get an ECTN11 21 cm down from the surface in a storm density change at this location.
The top elevation I reached was just above 6500', and at all elevations the crusts were present: grinch crust, 12/19, 12/17, and AR. Between 6300'-6500', the crusts become noticeably smaller and firmer.
At around 6000' and below on south aspects, the surface snow turned moist. No wet problems materialized, but snow was falling out of the trees, and the surface snow just started to become sticky. Noticably more faceting in the snowpack above 6200'
Avalanche
None observed