Stevens Pass: Skyline Lake

I would have loved to stay in the sunshine just east of Stevens Pass, but found mostly cloudy skies at Stevens Pass proper. I wanted to assess how the snowpack handled the overnight rain and how robust any surface crusts were. It was a mostly dreary day with on-and-off light snow/rain showers. Some sucker holes of blue sky would open up, but the sun hadn't made an appearance by the time I exited the field around 1 pm. Surface crusts were only semi-supportable, but despite that and the wet snow below, test slopes didn't produce any results. While wet loose concerns were minimal while in the clouds, I suspect sunny slopes would have been more ripe for wet loose avalanche activity. 

Despite wet surface snow, test results didn't produce any notable wet loose results.

Snow Surfaces: Just a dusting of new snow over the surface crust at 4000ft didn't increase by much, and I found only 1cm of recent snow at 5100ft. The surfaces were soft and semi-supportable to skis but not to boots. I would sink down about 25cm to a more robust crust when walking around without skis. Downhill travel was challenging with the breakable surface crust. Below 4500ft, the surface crust broke down, and the travel was more tolerable, although quite sticky. 

Snowpack Summary: I dug a profile at 5100ft in flat terrain near Skyline Lake. A trace amount (1cm) of fresh snow covers the most recent melt-freeze crust, which was about 5cm thick and 1F-P hard. Below this superficial surface crust, the snow from this week is wet and weak down to a more robust (P-K hard) crust at 24cm. Below this, the snowpack has transitioned to melt forms that are strong and mostly refrozen. Another stout crust exists at 64cm, and below that is more P-hard re-frozen melt forms. In this lower layer, I did find active drain channels still wet with last night's rain. 

Total Height of Snow: 300cm
Ski Penetration: 1cm
Boot Penetration: 25cm