Red Heather

Went up to Red Heather to do a Full Profile and some companion rescue practice. It snowed lightly throughout the day and the winds were calm. we observed about 20 cm's of unconsolidated snow sitting on a bulletproof melt freeze crust that was up to 25 cm's thick. At 1444m, the snowpack depth was 110 cm's. We saw no signs of avalanches or instability. Of note, the road from the lower chain up area to the upper lot is really slick right now, and Rangers/Park Operators are enforcing the chain up policy. Also, the ski out from about 200m above the upper lot is rocky, icy, and generally pretty bad. Check your speed near the bottom!

Overcast skies with snowfall rate of S-1 for the majority of the morning and afternoon. Air temperatures rose from -2.6 to -1.5 between 10:00 and 11:30 AM.

CTN, CTH 23 (RP) Down 45 on base of December 9 crust. 20 cm's of unconsolidated snow sitting on the Dec 9 MFcr. We found a layer of 2 mm surface hoar and 4mm needles 10cm's down from the surface. The Dec 9 crust was roughly 20-25 cm's thick in our profile location. Below the Dec 9 crust is a moist, saturated snowpack with several MFcr layers near the ground (unsure if Nov 5 or Nov 17).