Carson Pass

We made observations in the Carson Pass area today.  Around 6-12'' of snow exists in wind protected near and below treeline areas on northerly aspects.  Variable snow coverage and lots of exposed rock and dirt exist on solar aspects and in wind exposed near and above treeline areas.  In the wind protected areas, multiple snow layers exist from previous small snow storms that occurred in late October into November.  Weak snow has been developing through the faceting process near the ground.  Recent winds have created wind slab in multiple areas, but today we observed limited signs of instabilities where the combination of wind slab existed over weak faceted snow.   That is expected to change as more snow is forecasted over the next few days along with additional wind.