Quick report
NWAC and the NPS winter rangers took a walk in the rain today to see how the snow was handling the waters. Short story... very well. The snow surface was certainly wet and sloppy. Boots, skis, and snowshoes sank deep into the mush. However, despite some serious prodding on test slopes, we could not produce any small slides. Where was the rain-snow line? Good question. It was a ways above our heads, that's for sure.
No notable signs of instability were observed.Weather
- Air Temp
- 38
- Cloud Cover
- obscured
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- Above us
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
A wet, mild, dreary day. Rain showers were occasionally light to moderate. Winds picked up at the end of the day, but otherwise Light W winds.
Snowpack
The snow surface was wet and mushy, however, notably not sticky. The snowpack seemed to just be absorbing the water like a sponge. Numerous handpits on various aspects saw the same thing. The recent snow over the 12/24 crust shrank substantially during the warm, and now, wet weather.
While the upper snowpack was moist, other than the surface, it hadn't transitioned to wet melt-form snow grains. Numerous small test slopes didn't produce any results, and only one (pictured) resulted in a few small rollerballs. Where we were, the wet snow just wasn't quite ripe for avalanches. At least not yet.
A few moments of visibility up to about 7000ft showed signs of significant wind scouring. Bare, rocky ridges were very noticeable on most exposed features.
Avalanche
No new avalanches were noted.