Quick report
Not-quite-dawn-patrol to Butler Trees. Overall feeling is there wasn't enough new snow or wind to overload any weaker layers.
I was finding the rain crusts from 1/24 at lower elevations with loose facets underneath, but the stout crust seems to have effectively bridged weak layers. My biggest concern at low elevations would be loose snow sluffs.
I have largely been traveling at lower and mid-elevation slopes the past few weeks and overall I have not been finding overly weak snow from our two January faceting events. Over the past 4 days I have been getting mostly CTN and ECTN scores. Where I have been getting a fracture, shear quality has been Q2/RP or Q3. Facets from the two January events are very-small grained (.5 mm) and appear to be turning to rounds. I think the absence of a temperature gradient early last week helped heal these weak layers at low and mid-elevations, especially in the cottonwoods where there has generally been a thicker snowpack.
Scores today:
- ECTN (down 25 cms new snow/old snow interface.)
- CT 23 Q3 (down 65 cms failing in early January facets.)
I haven't traveled enough above about 10,000' to get a sense of things at upper elevations.
Dug a pit at 8800' on E/NE aspect (photo included) showing recent layers in the top 75 cms (30") of the snowpack.
Overall was finding a generally moderate danger with the greatest risk being sluffing in the new snow.
With snow and wind in the forecast, am expecting conditions to change.
Snowpack
About 25 cms of soft, unconsolidated new in mid-BCC with dense graupel interfacing with the old snow surface. Despite the graupel layer, still easy to feel old crusts/tracks underneath. The graupel layer seemed well-bonded to the old snow surface and I couldn't get a clean shear with shovel-tilt test. However the light density snow in the top 20 cms (8") was sluffing very easily, failing just above the graupel layer.