Quick report
We ventured to Virginia Lakes today to get an idea of current coverage and to monitor the extent of surface warming. We traveled on Southeast - East - North aspects between 9,500 feet and 11,500 feet on Black mountain.
- Coverage continues to dwindle at lower elevations and on solar aspects. Some dry-land travel was necessary to reach Red Lake from the summer parking area, but it was minimal.
- Thin cloud cover and increasing winds today worked together to limit the amount of surface warming during our tour. While the snow surfaces softened nicely by midday and ski quality was high, surface melt did not become concerning, and we saw no signs of instability.
- Hard snow made for quick travel on our ascent today. We brought the sharps, but did not find them to be necessary for our travels today.
- The ideal timing for our descent seemed to be around midday.
- We did confirm that concerning areas are likely isolated to places where the newer snow from last week's storm exists. Older snow surfaces are much more resilient to surface melting. This, of course, may become irrelevant in a couple of days as we see new snow added to the equation
Weather
- Air Temp
- 43
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- none
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
It was quite a pleasant day in the Eastern Sierra. Temperatures were warm today with measured highs in the mid-40°F. near and above treeline. Gusty winds out of the Southwest, and thin cloud cover were enough to take the edge off the powerful April sun.