Quick report
Route: Cornbiscuit to 2000' (highest alders on SW ridge uptrack) in a ping pong ball... oops! Instability: No signs of instability, but with limited visibility throughout the day. Glide cracks as previously reported have increased in number over the past week, and see photo below for changes to the biggest crack on south seattle ridge across from the Cornbiscuit lot. Weather: WARM - 36f at the road, and hovering around freezing at 2000'. Overcast with a band of clouds often obscuring the sky between 1500 - 3000' on the south end of the pass. Light snow throughout the day, accumulating to 1" (including snow overnight) by the late afternoon. Generally calm, with some occasional light northeast winds at our high point (treeline). Visibility hindered our view of ridgelines for most of the day, but with so little new snow/snow available for transport we may not have seen signs of ridgetop winds today even if it was blowing up high in places like seattle ridge. Snow Surface: 1" of new snow in the past day covers the intact, truly epic surface hoar that formed over the past week. The snow surface was moist to 1800' as of late afternoon. See photos below for examples of the 20mm grains that could easily be found at any point throughout the day; at the pit location of 2000', the surface hoar was slightly smaller but still fully intact under recent snow. Snowpack: Probed at our high point - 2000' - at the top of the highest alders on Cornbiscuit's SW shoulder - and found fairly consistent snowpack depth of 180-230cm. Dug to the ground to look at older crust layers, and the ground snow interface. Overall, the top half of the snowpack was right side up with no obvious interfaces, except for the surface hoar layer buried by one inch of snow in the past day. The bottom half of the snowpack has a variety of firm crust/rounds layers, but they are generally well bonded. With just two unremarkable deep tap test results near upper crusts (see image below), the bottom half of the snowpack also looked quite strong and boring at this low-elevation location!