Powderhouse

When I last went to Powderhouse on Monday, I had to walk in from the trailhead to 7900 ft before I found sufficient snow to cobble together a skin track. Temperatures had been so warm that the small marsh and mud areas near the trailhead had dried out, and I was walking in on dry loose dirt. 

Today, the snow started at the trailhead, in the main parking lot. A somewhat dense and wet layer of snow covered up most of the large brown spots and obstacles but only just. HS, and HSN, was 16 cm at the trailhead at 7700 ft and the same at 7800, and 7900 ft. However, the old snow only began at 8000 ft instead of at 7900 ft on Monday. At 8000 ft, I found 38 cm of saturated and dirty snow topped by the 16 cm of new dense and wet snow, but this new snow was less dense and wet than the old snow beneath. I dug down and performed a few hand shear tests, and the new snow layer wasn't thick and consolidated enough to cohesively shear off, except on top of obstacles such as a bush and a rock. The new snow mainly crumbled like feta cheese into irregular chunks.

Despite the blanket of white, I hit many obstacles on the ascent -- rocks, boulders, logs, bushes, roots -- and decided not to ascend very far. I kept my skins on for the descent and was glad that I did, since it was a similar minefield on the way down, even though I mainly stayed in the same tracks that I created on the ascent. It's sharky out there.

There was no wind while I was out but evidence of prior winds from the NW. The rain/snow line was at 7200 ft both on the drive up and down.

Powderhouse was bare ground on Monday up to 7900 ft. Today, snow started in the parking lot and all the way up as far as I could see. At 7700, 7800, 7900, and 8000 ft, the new snow was 16 cm. Snow was falling mostly lightly during my time out, but increased in intensity for about 10 minutes to about 0.25 in per hour.