Quick report
Easterly facing slopes had surface crusts up to an observed elevation of 11,200ft. Dry loose avalanches were isolated and tiny on northeasterly facing slopes. Snow surfaces on northeasterly facing slopes here, were not as weak as we have seen going into previous winter storms this winter.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Few clouds, warm temps, wind speeds picking up in the afternoon.
Snowpack
Easterly facing slopes between 10,900ft and my high point at 11,200ft looked like they will have a ~5cm crust once the snow surface refreezes. I found a couple of locations with developing ice lenses, another 3 to 5cm below those crusts.
Some northeast-facing slopes had a wafer-thin crust on the snow surface until you turned a little more north of northeast. Surface facets were 1mm. The upper 15cm of the snowpack still held some cohesion, similar to last week, and that has kept the loose dry avalanche problem isolated to areas with a well below-average snowpack depth. As you go deeper into the snowpack, the facets grow in size. The snowpack is very weak in areas with well below-average snowpack depth, typically on some old bed surfaces or very steep slopes.
Steep south-facing slopes on the other side of the ridge are often bare ground or have patchy snow coverage.