Crusty

We went to Frisby to assess the damage done by the rain earlier this week. Below 1400m, air temps were still in the positives and the upper snowpack was still wet. The crust appeared somewhere between 1400-1600m. At 2000m, the crust was 5cm thick, generally not supportive to boots and variably supportive to sleds. Flurries throughout the morning covered the crust in 15cm of new snow. In our snow profile, we found 30cm of moist or wet snow below the crust. We also observed a layer of large graupel 60cm deep and a layer of large surface hoar crystals 80-90 cm deep. Neither gave significant repeatable results in snowpack tests. Unofficial methods following the tests got the block to shoot out on the surface hoar layer. We postulated that the crust and lack of consolidated slab directly above the problem layers is holding things together for now. The bottom 60 cm of the snowpack was composed of faceted snow. Everyone we spoke to agreed the riding was pretty challenging. We’d probably wait for another snowfall before heading out again.