Quick report
I went out prepared for war based on the wind and temperature forecast. What I found instead was a beautiful day that actually felt like winter for a change.
Below treeline, I hardly felt the wind at all, and above treeline, I observed very little visible snow being blown around. Sensors at Mammoth are still reporting NE winds in the 50s and 60s as of 1 pm, however.
I found a crust on all snow surfaces below 8200 feet. Above, north and east-facing slopes held mostly fist-hard near-surface facets, with strips of windboard mixed in. Solars had frozen melt-freeze crust on the surface.
To my surprise, I found consistently soft skiing between 9200 and 8200 feet. Below, I had to contend with breakable crust to ski back to the car.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 20s
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- light
- Recent Snowfall
- None
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Below freezing, mostly sunny, and light north winds gusting to moderate occasionally.
Snowpack
HS: @7200: 20 to 30cm
@9200: 70 to 100cm
I dug in at 9200 feet on a ENE aspsect. I found 75cm of snow, and the 1/1 crust buried at 40cm. An extended column test produced hard, nonpropagating results (ECTN26 @ 40cm), and then ECTX. There are definitely facets on top of the New Years crust here - in fact, the entire 35cm on top is made up of fist-hard, 1-2mm near-surface facets.