Quick report
Went to the eastern edge of the advisory area to get a read on how the latest storm impacted things near the divide. • Skiing in the Sub Shields area proved unfavorable, despite the 10 inches of overnight snow on the canyon floor. • In many places at low elevations there was 3 inches or less of a base for this new snow to fall on. Travel off trail was an exercise in dealing with frustration. Travel challenges eased significantly above 5250'. • We dug a pit around 6400' before committing to skiing the main path into the Fielding Trail. We did not find any significant cause for concern. • Our pit did reveal a thin rain crust that reached into upper elevations. We will be keeping an eye on this layer as the overlying snow stiffens up. For now we felt that it presented a loose dry problem on slopes exceeding 40 degrees. • We cautiously descended and braved the low country once more. The skiing was good up high, but it was hardly worth what we endured to get there. No signs of instability observed during the day.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 10
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- 7000
- Recent Snowfall
- 25
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Cloudy day with light snowfall throughout the day. Cold day out, but comfortable with mostly calm winds. There were occasional breaths of wind from the SE.
Snowpack
Recorded details from one snowpit on an east facing slope at 6400'. • HS 73cm • 18cm of recent snow since late Saturday's bout of rain (11/23). The recent snow was dry and unconsolidated. • The new rain crust from Saturday is 0.5cm thick at this upper elevation location, and the snow beneath is slightly moist for 13cm beneath the crust. • Did not observe any buried surface hoar. • Three ECTs performed. Two with non propagating results on hard force and one with no result (ECTX) •Pit Profile attached for more details.