Quick report
After some debate in the parking lot, we opted to skip the skis and skins and hike up toward the base of Cowboy Ridge to take a look around. While we could have traveled on skis, we felt the exposed obstacles and fully saturated snowpack posed too much risk of equipment damage or injury on the descent for our liking. It was a soggy, blustery morning, but thankfully, snow levels gradually decreased, and precipitation stayed as snow.
We got a good look at the steep northern terrain off of Cowboy Ridge above 5000ft. We were surprised that there was no wet, loose avalanche debris visible. But I cannot say whether that is simply because too much rain fell, that the debris was just melted and obscured, or if there just wasn't enough of a snowpack to produce a wet avalanche cycle during the peak warming and rain on Friday night.
Despite the saturated snowpack, discontinuous snow coverage limited the potential for wet avalanches.Weather
- Air Temp
- 31
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- unknown
- Rain Elevation
- 5000ft and lowering
- Recent Snowfall
- None where we traveled
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Rain had just barely transitioned to snow at 4000ft when we left the parking lot. We experienced moderate snowfall throughout our short hike. But with relatively warm temperatures, we saw no accumulation below 4500ft. Winds were moderate with strong gusts.
Snowpack
Our snowpack is nonexistent below 3800, where only discontinuous snow patches exist. Between 4000-4500ft, we found slightly more continuous snow, with depths of 20-25cm. Above 5000ft, dry(ish) snow was beginning to accumulate. There are fast-flowing open creeks, and exposed rocks and brush were plentiful.
The snowpack was wet and unfrozen to the ground. Boot pen was the full depth of the snowpack.