Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
The continued theme of low avalanche hazard remains. The biggest instability we saw in the snowpack was cracking (in chunks smaller than 1-2' wide) of knife hard, 2-4" thick wind slabs. These lacked cohesion and did not behave as an entire slab. These hard slabs now sit over air and heavily faceted depth hoar above the ground below.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 5
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
Cold, clear and calm. An appealing aspect of the sout side of Government was that even with single digit air temperatures recorded at 3,500' around 1100, we were ascending in sunhoodies--it felt warm at times. As soon as we got a small breeze, we were reminded that it is in fact December and the Solstice is this weekend--temperatures revealed themselves.
Snowpack
The south side of Government Peak is nearly snow free with the exception of the looker's right gully and upper bowl from the Race Trail. We remarked several times that "it looks like October" or "it could be May, but single digit temps in the sunshine!" The lack of snow shows.
Higher up in the alpine, we found some previously wind loaded gullies on the leeward (West) side at around 4,500'. There are some 4 Finger to Knife hard cornices along the proper Government Peak ridge. With some test stomps, these crumbled and tumbled down slope and were unable to trigger firm, wind-affected slopes below. See above for isolated cracking. The rest of the ridge has wild, artistic sastrugi and is a variation of bullet proof surfaces and breakable wind slabs. In protected areas, the snowpack that remains is heavily faceted, though Government has substantially less of this than higher up and more protected zones in the forecasting area.
The route itself is in good shape with a few firm, supportable and slick sections crossing towards Blueberry Knoll. Below BBK's elevation there is hardly snow--a mere inch or two and mostly ice along the trail. Bring your traction.