WA Pass

A shallow and variable local snowpack, with some weak surfaces to consider with the arrival of the next storm.  The weakest snow and most-suspect grain types seem to exist at lower elevations, where terrain remains quite rough and vegetated.

We observed and heard small (sz.1) wet loose activity from steep rocky solar features. Nothing entrained >10-20cm below the surface. We may have been able to push small wet loose slides with ski cuts on steep solar slopes (>35 degrees) today.

A very shallow, early season snowpack that is now settling further, in response to anomalous warming aloft.  

Our travel was restricted to Near and Above Treeline today, as the shallow snowpack would make travel Below Treeline tedious.  The anticipated Surface Hoar was mainly confined to valley bottom around the Hairpin today.  On polar aspects, the dominant surface consisted of small Near Surface Facets, which were both weakest, and thus best for skiing, Near Treeline.  Above 6500' or so, much of the previous wind effect was also succumbing to faceting, allowing for fair ski quality into the alpine.  Isolated features that saw more sustained winds and associated loading continued to hold deposits of firm wind-board.  We found P hard sections of up to 20cm in depth today, that were boot supportable and unreactive.

We found wet snow in the top 5-10cm on alpine solar slopes today, with moisture evident within the top 20cm.  On moderate slope angles (<35 degrees or so) we found supportable travel and smooth turns.  We suspect that steeper slopes may have been more reactive to ski cuts.

Overall, we probed up to 90cm on favored polar slopes and up to 80cm on deeper solars.  Many areas, of course, were much shallower, with previous wind-scouring creating a landscape of thinly-veiled or barely-exposed granite.