Quick report
No instability observed. See snowpack notes below.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 4
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- N/O
- Recent Snowfall
- NO
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
You guessed it: cold, clear and calm. A gentle NE breeze made temperatures feel below 0 in the shade, but they were pleasant in the sun. No snow transport, no signs of solar input to the upper snowpack on lower elevation westerly aspects.
Snowpack
In typical form, lower elevation meadows were heavily faceted with ~30-40cm of loose, unconsolidated new snow and facets in untouched areas. The snowmachine track on the conventional up was firm and packed in, and as we gained the ridge, we encountered the "dust on crust" setup of 4" of new snow on firm, slick, supportive old wind slabs. Ski quality was best on NE aspects and at lower angle, lower elevation meadow pitches.
While traveling, hand pits and pole tests had one of three options: loose, unconsolidated surface snow, a few inches of new snow over firm old surfaces or bulletproof wind board.
Snowpit tests in a previously windloaded drift at 2775' on a NNW aspect in 95cm of snow yielded no propagation and ECTN24 at the new snow/old snow interface. ETCX (no results) in the same location. The midpack in this location was stout, pencil hard old wind slab over less than 10cm of basal facets, providing some strong bridging over these weak grains near the ground.
Ridgetop on Stairstep showed more signs of wind than other areas further west that we have been observing in the forecast area (see photo below). In more sheltered areas above 3,000', we found a thin and brittle wind skin.