Quick report
At low elevations, south facing slopes are bare or patchy. Sheltered terrain has snow and is passable. The snowpack is very faceted and impressive surface hoar exists in most locations.
At mid elevations, coverage starts to get better around 7,500-8,000 feet. South aspects have an acceptable, but shallow amount of snow. Northerly terrain is well covered. The top 20cm of snow is heavily faceted.
At high elevations coverage is great, we found the average height of snow to be 150 to over 200cm deep after probing many aspects. The kicker is the wind effect, slopes that aren't sheltered have seen some sort of wind effect, in most places this is wind board. In sheltered areas, softened faceted snow can be found which makes for good travel and turning.
The extent of surface faceting is quite impressive, surface hoar exists all the way to the high ridgelines and everywhere in between. We observed a small dry loose avalanche that failed within the surface snow.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 20s
- Cloud Cover
- few
Another beautiful high pressure day. Winds were calm except on exposed ridge lines where they were blowing light to moderate from the west. There was not much snow available for transport, but you could hear wind knocking around surface facets in the right places. It was cold up high and I doubt any slopes took on much heat at middle of upper elevations.
Snowpack
Dug a pit at 9,300’ on a NW aspect. Snow depths are relatively shallow here being on the windward side of the mountain. Depths almost double on the leeward side. No unstable test results. High strength, except for the top 10-20cm of facets that have developed. The midpack ice layer is as thick as I have seen in our forecast zones. At least 1cm of solid clear ice. Difficult to dig through and shielding the rounding facets near the ground. Snow is bonded well above and below the ice.