Quick report
I experienced generally stable conditions during my tour. I found weak structure (facet-crust sandwich) at the bottom of the snowpack at both 6700' and 7400' elevation, but the top half of the snowpack was right-side-up above a stout crust. These layers are worth tracking in the coming weeks, but our current forecast does not suggest enough of a load to cause them to fail.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 29-35
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 2
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
Light snow began around 9:30 am, and showers continued through the duration of my tour. Total accumulation was around 1 inch. Winds were mostly calm with some light breezes from the SW. Temps hovered around freezing with a bit of an inversion, making for soft but wet skiing.
Snowpack
I found 1-2.5 feet of snow between 6400'-7400'. The top 5"-10" was soft, damp, and heavy; likely a combination of above-freezing temperatures from the last 24 hours and new precip that fell as wet snow through this morning. I dug on an East aspect at 7400' and on a North aspect at 6700'. In both spots, I could distinctly identify 2 firm crusts in the bottom third of the snowpack, and I found rounding facets at the ground and in between the two crusts at both locations. Despite the poor structure, I did not get any propagating results in my tests in either location. I suspect that there is not currently enough of a load to break through the crusts and impact the weak layers.