Quick report
We squeezed in a tour and got one quick test pit in just below treeline. The snowpack structure still has some concerns, with a thick slab sitting on top of weak snow, but it does seem to be gaining strength. There is still a chance a person will be able to trigger a large avalanche on that faceted snow in the bottom of the snowpack, but those odds are getting smaller as the snowpack adjusts to the heavy loading event from last weekend. The other major concern is the continued wind loading we are seeing with the ongoing northwest winds. We saw light to moderate snow transport with today's winds, although it seemed like for how strong the winds were there wasn't a ton of snow moving around.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Cold. Mostly sunny with some thin clouds and ice fog in the mid and upper elevations. Strong northwesterly winds at ridgelines, but winds remained light up to around 2500'.
Snowpack
From our single pit at 2500', we found a thick (3' deep), hard slab sitting on top of a series of crusts and rounding facets. This did not produce any results in our quick pit (ECTX), and the column peeled off some tundra at the ground when I pried it out with a shovel. Right now, that setup with a stiff slab on top of facets still is not very confidence-inspiring, but it does seem to slowly be improving.
Avalanche
Plenty of evidence of recent avalanches from last weekend's storm, but nothing that looked fresh.