Lincoln Ridge

Light snowfall greeted us at Yuba Pass and continued intermittently through 1 pm. Some sun breaks also occured but those became fewer and fewer as the day progressed. A small amount of new snow (1 in) had covered the old surfaces, making many slopes appear smooth. The wind-affected snow hid just below this thin coating of new snow on any exposed slopes. Soft snow existed below the new snow on the most sheltered slopes. Many open creeks and holes in the snow still remain in the lower elevation areas on the way to the ridge. As we moved into more exposed terrain, we found the wind slabs still rested on a softer layer of storm snow when we dug test pits or probed into the snow, but this storm snow weakness continues to assimilate into the snowpack and consolidate. When we gained the ridge, the increasing winds had started blowing the new snow onto the leeward slopes. Large cornices also hung over many of the slopes near the ridgeline. 

Ski kicks triggered cornice failures, but those cornice pieces did not trigger other signs of instability when they hit the slopes below. Ski kicks on wind-loaded test slopes and snowpit tests also did not produce unstable results.