Stanford Rock

Went for a tour from lower ward creek (still able to use rim trail parking due to lack of snowbanks). Crossing ward creek was a challenge in itself but doable. Below 7200ft in this area the snowpack is barely usable due to dense canopy trees collecting the recent snowfall and high snow level from early season events. Conditions greatly improved above 7500ft and overall coverage and quality of skiing was great. Widespread surface hoar was observed in most open areas protected from wind and sun. I had some isolated cracking and collapsing as expected from PWLs (buried surface hoar + crust facet combo). Cold nights have made our "slab" weaker in this area and it was hard to get anything to move much as a unit, the only place were things acted slab like were areas that were exposed to recent winds. I dug a pit on a NE aspect at 8400ft and verified a well preserved surface hoar and facet crust combo. CTM (SC) x2 on buried surface hoar, and ECTN13 on buried surface hoar. Slab was not stiff enough to allow propagation (mostly Fist hard), Id expect areas that have this preserved layer to become more of issue as we increase load.

Stanford Rock

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