Quick report
Another day of good stability allowed us to do some exploring in Central Glacier Park. • Once departing the Sperry Trail, we traveled uphill on NW, W, SW, and South aspects to 6700'. We descended on E, NE, N, and NW to 4900' before hoping on the Snyder Lake Trail for the exit. • Weak snow was prevalent near the surface on all aspects we traveled. • The dominant surface conditions on all aspects traveled was 1-3 inches of NSF capping a very thin and fragile crust. Beneath this was more facets and more decomposing crusts...and sometimes more facets. • All of the recent faceting made our downhill travel pretty easy and enjoyable through sandbox powder. Building a solid skin track was a bit of a struggle through steep sections. • We were shocked to encounter very little windboard during our tour and no signs of fresh windslabs. • We were also surprised by the lack of old debris visible near the Upper Snyder Headwall, as well as in any of the many steep southerly gullies of Mount Brown. Everything is remarkably clean thanks to all of the cold and cool weather the last several weeks. No signs of instability observed
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- scattered
- Wind Loading
- none
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Cold and cloudy morning with no precipitation. By afternoon, we were delighted by the clearing skies, brilliant sunshine, and spectacular views. Single digits prevailed at upper elevations. Cool temps kept snow surfaces dry on solar aspects despite the ample afternoon sunshine.
Snowpack
Weak snow abounds. • We collected Snowscope Probe data from several locations between 5900' and 6700'. Pit graphs attached. • Dug a handpit at two of these poke pit locations to compare and take a closer peek at the upper snowpack structure. What we saw wasn't pretty. •Surface hoar was present at many locations, but very small. One exception was right at our highpoint where we found feathers up to 8mm.