Quick report
Elephant's Back has seen a lot of recent wind activity, and as I approached it at about 11 am, it was getting hit by SW winds with snow being transported to the NE bowl (Pictures 1 and 2). The top part of the NE bowl was characterized by a light wind crust, while the lower part was harder breakable crust, about 1 cm thick (Picture 3). It was definitely not a good descent down the bowl in terms of skiing quality although not horrible. Some debris was in the NE bowl, a little below the cornice (Pictures 2 and 4). The S/SE approach face of Elephant's Hump was firmer than expected at noon due to the intermittently moderate winds. As I swung around to the east side, the snow was softer but still supportable. The NE glades descent from Elephant's Hump held very good faceted snow with high quality skiing until just before Red Lake Vista Road at about 8200 feet. Below 8200 feet, the snow was quite heavy. On the way back to Carson Pass on Red Lake Vista Road, there was intact surface hoar on NW and NE aspects in wind protected open areas (Pictures 5 and 6). The pieces were about 3-4mm. I noticed a debris field below the cornice of Elephant's Back on the NE aspect.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 40's
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- intense
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Weather was bluebird until noon when a few clouds started coming in from the SW. Moderate winds throughout your.