Crawfish Lake TH, Long Meadow area

A general stable snowpack was observed from ~7500' down to about 7000' on NW-SW aspects today. The snowpack was receiving enough solar input to moisten slopes facing SE-W, as evidenced by our machine tracks traveling to and from the Long Meadow area. Surface hoar was noted up to 10mm on sheltered NW and W aspects. Previous wind effects and sun effects were both observed, but were obviously <24-48 hours old. We observed no signs of instability throughout our ride and found nothing of concern in our snowpits.

We observed a well settled snowpack with a variety of surface conditions. Medium-large surface hoar was observed in sheltered or partially sheltered areas. SE-W aspects receiving direct solar were moist by the time we left the field. We found 4-5' (140cms) of snow on a flat aspect at 7100'. The 1/3 crust was approximately 20cms (<1') down and a second (thinner) crust was noted about 30cms (1') down. We did not observe any persistent grain types nor did we receive any sudden results in compression tests in either of the two snowpits we dug. The top ~80cm's of the snow gradually increased in hardness. We did note a strong temperature gradient (~6 degrees C) in the top 20cms of the snowpack.