Rescue Creek

Rob and I - with volunteer shoveler and trailbreaker Cyros - traveled up Rescue Creek to assess surface conditions and look for PWLs - Near surface facets from the clear skies before the Equinox? 2/3 ice/ crust and facets? 

Our takeaways:

• We were surprised by the depth of the snowpack. HS 3-3.5 meters on northerly mid elevation slopes and low-moderate angled westerly slopes at upper elevations.
• We were also surprised by hard it was to find the 2/3 ice/ crust and facets in areas with a settled seasonal snowpack. See snowpack section.
• We found little evidence of a pwl that formed during the clear nights of the mid-March dry spell. See snowpack section.
• We found the equinox melt freeze crust under recent snow up to our high point of 6800 ft. 
• Dunes and drifts on the uphill sides of trees below the Nyack-Penrose saddle showed last weekend's easterly winds roared up this slope, though it appears any slabs that formed are now buried and unreactive. 
• Slopes that recieve direct solar radiation had a 2-5 cm thick melt-freeze crust at the surface below about 5500 feet, and likely higher (we didn't travel on this aspect above this elevation).
• Snow conditions on westerly, northerly, and easterly slopes had a mixed bag of surface conditions: dry, soft powder; moist to wet powder (esp below ~5000'); and grabby crusts where the moist snow was refreezing. 

No signs of instability save one propagating ECT (see snowpack section) and debris from a half dozen or so loose snow avalanches.

Surprisingly deep snowpack above 6000 ft - 3-3.5 m.

• The 2/3 ice/MF crust: it wasn't apparent in profiles dug down 1.25-1.5 m. Either more deeply buried, degraded away (doubtful), or was never there (also doubtful). 
• The Equinox melt-freeze crust is buried 15-35 cm below the surface, depending on aspect, wind scouring, and elevation. It was 1-2 cm thick on northerly, mid-elevation slopes. It likely fades out at uper elevations. It was 15-20 cm, with multiple layers (hardest at top) on an upper elevation, westerly slope. 
• We found little evidence of near-surface facets leftover from the cold, clear nights of the mid-March dry spell/ warming. Very small (<0.5 mm) rounding FC mixed in with rounds under the crust on northerly (ECTN26). One ECT did propagate above the Equinox crust on a westerly slope at 6700 ft (ECTP 11, down 20 cm). Again, a few indistinct rounding NSF. The slab was slightly harder (4F), from wind.