Quick report
Doing a little recon on the snow surface before venturing out to other areas. Dug to ground on West @ 9800ft and found HS 78cm with a fairly stout 8cm crust under a 1-2cm of freshly fallen graupel. For the most part rounded grains, little in the way of density gradients remain other than a decomposing melt/freeze crust down around 22cm off the dirt (remnants of the CERC?).
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Long sliding falls a more pressing concern than the avalanche conditions today. Surface M/F crust over F- supportable enough to be a problem with new snow if and when it comes.</p>
Curiosity and lack of recent obs had us curious today, though it was about as firm as we expected out there. The incoming cold air, moderate winds, and cloud cover limited much of any softening of the snow surface outside of ski area grooming. Deeper north/east aspects were edgeable cycled snow and generally slide-for-life but manageable at slow speeds where the snow surface was smooth and free of tracks. Lots of old tracks and texture on south/west aspects as a result of much of the past few days' melt. With some softening there's probably some decent corn skiing still to be had up high, but today wasn't it.
Travel was generally OK but it's worth noting that in shallower, rocky areas if you manage to break through the crust at the surface, you're quickly wallowing in rotten snow. Other than a few turns, skis kept us on top of the M/F crust, but booting around quickly sank 70+cm to dirt/rocks.