Quick report
Curiosity around faceting above and below the 1/1 crust led us to dig a few holes on northwest terrain near 10,000'. While we did find faceting adjacent to the crust, we also found that the entire upper snowpack was composed of faceted grains. Warm days and clear, cold nights have led to the entire snowpack to facet out above this crust.
On our descent, we found wet snow at the surface of southwesterly aspects around 8,000' (~2 pm). We had no roller balls or other signs of instability while travelling over this surface.
No signs of instability found on today's tour.Weather
- Air Temp
- 45
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- light
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Temperatures were warm, skies were clear, and there was an intermittent light breeze from the southwest. We found light blowing snow from the southwest around 9,000'.
Snowpack
We found approximately a meter of settled snow in the Convict area. In places excavated by the wind, the 1/1 crust was at or near the surface. In places with wind deposition, the 1/1 crust was down ~50cm and capped by a variety of different-sized facets. On northerly aspects, our upper snowpack is decomposing and weak. In long-column tests, we lacked a cohesive slab and did not see propagating results. Below the 1/1 crust, a stiff (1F-P) midpack slab from 12/24 is made up of small rounds.
Surfaces are variable. Here's a subjective list:
- Faceting sastrugi or faceting windboard
- Supportable, firm wind buff
- Sheltered pockets holding soft, facet-pow turns
- Light melt-freeze crusts this AM on solars
- Wet surface snow on solar aspects at low elevation this afternoon
Solar aspects at low elevation are melting out. Foliage is poking through, and creeks and small bodies of water are beginning to open up.