Fresno

We toured up to 2900' and dug 2 pits along the way. There was 4-6" of new snow on top of a supportable crust. At our 2500' pit there was a 1' thick (30 cm) crust sandwich under the new snow. This layer was adding a lot of strength to the snowpack and makes triggering an avalanche on the facets below very unlikely. At our 2800' pit we found a very thin crust under the new snow with about 2' of rounded on top of the December facet layer. We were surprised how deeply the facet layer was buried in this location and how different the snowpack structure was compared to the lower pit, which was just a few hundred feet lower. Overall the stability is much improved in Summit Lake compared to before the last series of warm and wet storms. There is still a chance of triggering a very large avalanche from a thin spot in the snowpack. This is more likely above 2500' where the crust is not as thick.

We saw some light snow transport on Raven’s Ridge and some of the peaks in the Summit area. Large pockets of wind deposited snow were evident on many of the slopes of Summit. While we did trigger a small, shallow windslab (see photo), it was not large enough to be a concern. At higher elevations or on different aspects these slabs are could be larger and something to keep in mind if poking out onto steeper, more exposed terrain.