Quick report
The overall theme from my tour focuses on the weak snow at the base of the snowpack. Where I dug my pit it is deep, starting around 155 cm (61") below the surface and going to the ground. The facet/crust sandwiches are closer to the surface. Both of these sections of the snowpack failed with 'sudden' results during snowpack testing.
I did not observe any cracking, whumphing, or recent avalanches. I did observe very weak snow in the mid to lower pack in a pit at 7740' on a north aspectWeather
- Air Temp
- 35
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
There was very light intermittent rain in the AM below 7000'. I saw a few snow flakes falling at the upper elevations in the AM but no accumulation. The wind was light to moderate out of the SE-SW.
Snowpack
At 7740' on a north aspect the height of snow was 168 cm (66"). I found weak sugary snow at the base of the pack. This layer failed with a sudden collapse during a deep tap test. I also found a series of weak facet/crust combos in the mid to lower pack that spanned 30 cm (12"); see snowpit picture. I found sudden planar results during compression tests on the facet/crust combos. The upper pack was mostly consolidated old snow. The upper 20 cm (8") of the pack was heavy dense snow. There is a widespread freezing rain crust on the surface of the pack from the summit (~7800) down to the lake level (~6200')