Quick report
I travelled up to 7500' on mainly W through SE aspects with a goal of cataloging surface conditions and seeing how the snowpack structure has changed since my last visit. I observed surface hoar growth on sheltered aspects away from dense trees. These crystals were not being destroyed by the sun on shallower solar slopes (as of 1:00PM), but I did not see any on steeper solar slopes. Below 7000', these crystals were growing ontop of a fragile melt-freeze crust that existed on all aspects. Solar aspects were noticeably crusty and polar slopes above 7000' were still held soft preserved powder. I observed no recent wind effect, though I did not travel into the alpine. There was evidence of very very small loose wet avalanches in steep solar terrain above the lake.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 32
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- Nil
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Clear and calm morning with mild temperatures and intense solar radiation.
Snowpack
At 7500' on a west aspect I observed the early Feb crust down 45cm (1.5') and found some weak sugary snow just above it. These faceted grains were very small however, and did not propagate a fracture during an ECT. I found a total of 120cm's (4'+) of snow. Everything below the early Feb crust was very hard (P+) and sat on top of about 30cm's (1') of older snow from December. These grains at the ground appeared to be gaining strength and did not produce any fractures. I also found a thin layer of graupel 6cm's (2-3") down.