Round Top Lake

Today was my first day on snow for the season, so I went for a "shakedown tour" and focused less on turns and more on covering ground to gain baseline observations in the area. I circumnavigated Woods Lake via Black Butte and Round Top Lake, then roughly followed the summer trail from Winnemucca Lake towards Frog Lake and back to Carson Pass. Although the snowpack was shallow, it was also supportable and provided good travel conditions with just a few inches of ski penetration. The surface was graupel in the trees or where exposed to previous winds, and surface hoar in areas away from trees yet sheltered from the wind.  I had hoped to use the steep rollers and gullies along the ridge between Black Butte and Round Top Lake as test slopes for wind slab deposited by recent E winds, but the W aspects had too many exposed rocks for this purpose. I dug in two places on cold slopes, and found moist facets that produced unstable snowpack test results at the ground, but I intentionally dug where the ground cover was smooth. Most of this area is covered by rocks and brush in the summer, so intentionally digging where the ground is smooth may not be the best overall representation. I also performed several informal tests on graupel down 8-10 inches, and got results indicating this would be a layer of concern where there is a more cohesive slab above it.

3ft of supportable snow with rightside up hand hardness except at the ground. Surface hoar and graupel on the surface, and moist facets at the ground. No other persistent weak layers observed, but the graupel down 8-10 inches is worth monitoring.