Quick report
Route: Center Ridge to the Kickstep Glacier up to 3300' Red Flags: Several natural small unremarkable D1 slabs (crowns ~25-50' wide and shallow) in the Kickstep Glacier area and near the base of elevator shaft, likely from the end of the 2/10 storm, along with some small dry loose activity near the Library Ridgeline on steep slopes. Widespread debris piles and larger crowns were evident below Tincan Proper and the Library from over a week ago (the early February warmup!). No cracking or collapsing observed. Weather: Temps in the high 20s, generally calm winds, and broken sky with patches of valley fog. Snow Surface: All elevations - 2-4mm surface hoar in clearings. 800' - 1800': 3-5" of soft new snow over a very ski supportable crust. 1800' - 2400' (flats below the library): 2-12" of soft snow - signs of prior wind transport - over a stout crust/very firm base. 2400' - 3300' (wind sheltered terrain): Ski penetration of 2-6" in soft recent snow over a progressively firmer base. Snowpack: Probed consistently from 2700 - 3300' to try to identify a spot where the December facets were in the top meter of the snowpack to see how they looked after the warm start to February. With few exceptions, the snow height was over 320cm in this elevation band. The hardness change that I suspect was the December facets was subtle with a probe, and generally down 150cm+ from the snow surface. The crust from early February got progressively thinner by elevation, buried under 20-40cm of recent snow. Dug a pit at 3300' on a west aspect, 25 degree slope in a very shallow area where total snow height was just 110cm. What I suspect to be the December facets were down just 20-30cm in this location (the result of wind scouring in January/February). Despite this spot being very shallow, the most concerning layer was four finger hardness 1mm rounding facets down 20-30cm... a big improvement over the structure observed at lower elevations in recent weeks before the warm weather. A quick dig 40' away found that same facet layer down 1 meter, with harder hand hardness (4 finger+) and smaller (.5mm) rounding facets. See photo below for full pit information!