Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
- Collapsing
- isolated
The snowpack in the Rattlesnake zone is exceptionally thin at all elevations. Only upper elevations have held onto snow from November. There is a layer of weak facets at the ground on upper elevation, north aspects. However, we did not encounter significant indications of instability with this layer.
We observed some cracking along the southeast facing ridgeline at upper elevations up to Point 6. We also observed isolated collapses at upper elevations in areas that still held old November snow.Weather
- Air Temp
- 30
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Rain Elevation
- 4500
- Recent Snowfall
- 36
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Overcast all morning, and the clouds began to clear in the afternoon. Very calm wind at all elevations. The snowfall rate started out light in the morning, increased to moderate during our ascent and then slowed back down and stopped by the time were descending. Temperatures were warm throughout the day and increased quickly as the clouds began to clear.
Snowpack
At lower and middle elevations, the depth of snow is very shallow. Only a few inches were on the ground at the trailhead and at the bottom portion of Snowbowl. The snow coverage increased to around 1-1 1/2 feet at 7000'. At 7800', on a north aspect we found the deepest snowpack of still only around 3 feet. Our snowpit, on a north aspect, was 32 inches (82cm). In our pit, we found a little over 1 foot of new and recent snow that fell on an old melting crust. Below this crust were about 15 inches (40cm) of facets. We performed an Extended Column Test and got a moderate non-propagating result at the crust/facet interface. We also observed riming on the west sides of trees and poles at upper elevations on ridgelines, indicating previous strong winds from the west. We encountered small cornice growth in isolated areas.
Avalanche
Numerous wet loose avalanches along north facing road cuts on the road up to Snowbowl. Dry loose sluffs of new snow were easily triggered from the southeast ridgeline at upper elevations up to Point 6. Some cracking and a few small slabs were also triggered during our observation but it was mostly unconsolidated dry loose sluffs.