Quick report
We brought the plow truck up to push some snow around in the parking lot before heading up to get some high quality skiing in this afternoon. The inversion cloud was thick but once we got above it we enjoyed clear skies with cool temps and very light winds for the rest of the day. There was about 2' of new snow and a lot of people out testing the slopes, but almost no avalanche activity to speak of. Some dry loose (sluff) avalanches in steep terrain, with some very small storm slab pockets, but nothing else that we noticed in Zero Bowl, Warm-Up Bowl, or Triangle Bowl.
We dug one pit on a SW aspect at 3200' and it looks like the new/old interface from this most recent storm will be something to keep an eye on with future loading events. We also saw a fresh layer of surface hoar on the surface from ~1800' and higher. See the snowpack section in this observation for more details.
Not much to report beyond small skier-triggered sluffs.Weather
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Rain Elevation
- 0
- Recent Snowfall
- 60
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Thick inversion cloud up to around 2200'. Clear, cool and calm above that. Signs of stronger winds along higher ridgelines (~4000') but mostly calm with light variable winds along the main Seattle Ridge.
Snowpack
We dug a quick test pit at 3200' on a SW aspect at the top of Triangle Bowl. Total snow depth there was a little over 7' (215 cm). There was nearly 2' (60 cm) snow from Thursday-Friday, which was sitting on top of a layer of faceted snow. We found a thin layer of buried surface hoar (6-8mm) at that interface as well. The snow above and below that buried surface hoar was soft (fist hardness). This interface was clearly not very reactive today, but it will be something to watch moving forward.
No concerning test results in our pit (ECTN 11 within the storm snow, ECTN21 at new/old interface). We noticed a fresh layer of surface hoar from about 1800' and up.