Quick report
I parked at 4800' and started in my running shoes. I soon switched to skis when I realized that slogging through shin-deep slushy patches was worse than taking my skis off and walking over the dirt patches. Some vehicle tracks continued past the lower parking, but no one had yet made it to the upper lot. This didn't surprise me, as even the lower part of the road was sloppy in shaded areas.
Around 6000' I encountered an actual snowpack, rather than just slush on the ground. But trail breaking remained difficult, as the top 6 - 12 inches of snow was wet and unsupportable. Although it was windy I did not see any blowing snow at ridgetops, leading me to believe that the surface snow is moist/wet right to ridgetop.
I dug a pit at 7200' on a NE aspect, and found that wet/moist snow transitioned to dry around 2 feet deep. Last week's settled storm snow was 2.5' deep, and below this were layers of buried crusts and weak facets. These layers were dry, but as I watched and waited, water started to pool on some of these layers. This indicates that water is percolating through the snowpack and creating the set-up for wet slab avalanches. I had planned get to a higher elevation during my tour, but this was so fascinating to watch that I ran out of time.
I tried some ski cutting on the way down, but any roller balls I triggered were quickly hung up on dry snow underneath. I suspect I could have ski cut wet loose avalanches on steeper slopes. Ski quality was very poor.
Small isolated rollerballs.Weather
- Air Temp
- 49
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Rain Elevation
- It was not actively raining, but if it were, rain line would have been high....
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
It was hot! Fortunately moderate winds and thin cloud cover kept me from overheating. The same cannot be said of the snowpack, although wind and clouds were definitely tempering snowpack warming.
Snowpack
Up to about 6000' the "snowpack" was just slush on the ground. Above this elevation there was 15 to 30 cm (5 to 12 inches) of wet snow overlying semi-supportive moist snow. The total height of snow was 70 cm (2.3') at 6000'. The depth of snow increased with elevation. I found 2 m (6.5') of snow at 7200'.
I dug a pit at 7200' on a NE aspect, and found multiple crusts and facet layers buried beneath 82 cm (32 inches) of storm snow from last week. These layers were mostly dry, except for water pooling at 80, 82, and 109 cm (31, 32, and 43 inches) down. The wet layers at 80 and 82 were within a layer of dry/moist rounded grains just above the March 3rd crust. The layer at 109 was just above the Feb 23rd crust. Meltwater had not yet made it to the two persistent weak layers we've been monitoring this season (Feb 14th and Jan 23rd), which were at depths of 117 and 139 cm (46 and 55 inches).
I got no results in an extended column test (ECTX).