Mt Judah

Snowfall started around 9am on Donner Summit and quickly increased in intensity. This morning we observed strong S winds transporting new snow. These shifted to SW by late morning. Approximately 2" of dense new snow had accumulated by the time we returned to our cars at 2pm. New snow was well bonded to areas with a supportable crust underneath, however, we observed localized cracking in areas where wind transported snow was accumulating on top of weaker surfaces, particularly thin melt freeze crusts on top of facets. We did a quick CT test and found CTE SC at the interface of new/old snow and CTE SC above the Jan 3 rain crust. Temps increased throughout the day and we could observe rising snow levels on our drive home. Although we did not observe any avalanche activity, we found many areas where a weak upper snowpack structure will be a concern in the week ahead. It will be challenging to know where these areas are without prior knowledge of snow surface conditions and/or careful evaluation of terrain. We saw isolated cracking in a few wind loaded areas.

Quick report