WMR Sidecountry

We stepped into the cloud today in the WMR sidecountry. Freezing fog was widespread, and a subtle, mostly unnoticeable rime crust that formed through midday thickened and hardened as the day went on—unfortunately capping plenty of great powder underneath. We picked up 3–5 inches of new snow Tuesday into Wednesday. Stability was good and the fledgling snowpack appeared strong. Even when we prodded the snow on steep slopes and along the uptrack, it showed no signs of instability, and we saw no evidence of wind transport before the crust locked up the surface.

Our primary concern was the thin snow cover, even up high. Many obstacles are still exposed—or worse, lurking just below the surface. While the morning turns were generally good, we still bumped into plenty of shallowly buried hazards.

Ski penetration was through the new snow, approximately 12 cm. A surface rime crust was thin and barely noticeable at the beginning of the day, but thickened to 1 cm and became more stout and cohesive as the day progressed, as the freezing fog accreted onto the snow surface. We dug two snow pits above 6500 feet on east-northeast and northeast aspects. Pit structure was nearly identical, and we found 80-90 cm of total snow. The upper 50 cm or so of the snowpack all fell since last Monday, November 24th. 

The snowpack is generally right-side-up and resting on a stout refrozen base in the bottom 34 cm. Snowpack tests were unremarkable.

Ghoulies Point - 6646' - Northeast Aspect

HS 88 cm, HST 12 cm - ECTX. unremarkable CT results

Surface - 5 mm rime crust

88 - 76 - Fist new snow (12/2-12/3)

76-63 - 4F -> 4F+ (Thanksgiving storm)

63-40 - 4F+ -> 1F (11/24-11/25)

40-38 - Pencil melt-freeze crust

38-34 - 4F+ - Worthy of further observation moving forward

34-2 - Pencil melt-freeze crust with pockets of 1F

2-0 - Knife hard ice lens