Quick report
My goals for the day were to assess access, new snow, surfaces, and any wind slab hazard in upper Rock Creek canyon.
The road is free of snow up to the pack station, but the gate is still closed at the East Fork campground. Between the pack station and Mosquito Flat, there is an unfortunate mix of snow and pavement. Above the summer trailhead, I was able to skin up to my high point, although several of the lower lakes are open or suspect, and I skirted the shores. Travel in the lower part of the valley will be difficult soon.
I found a trace of new snow below 11000 ft, and roughly 1 to 2" above, but it was hard to tell because any new snow had been blown around or away.
Surfaces were a mixed bag - old exposed snow was mostly frozen melt/freeze. New snow was sporadic in distribution and was mostly punchy, but sometimes supportable wind board.
I could not initiate any small wind slabs, and observed no signs of instability besides localized cracking around my skis.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 25 to 35
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- light
- Recent Snowfall
- Trace to 2"
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Windy in the morning, but calmed throughout the day. Temperatures were either side of the freezing mark between my low and high point. Mostly sunny. Small amounts of snow continued to blow around above treeline.
Snowpack
Small amounts of snow still available for transport.
Small amounts of blowing snow above treeline.
What little snow fell during the "storm" is heavily wind-affected.