Quick report
Cold temperatures and active faceting dominated our tour today. Our goal was to find something new that we hadn't seen in the past several weeks. We were unsuccessful. In general, the snowpack is healing, surfaces are faceting, and conditions have improved with rocks as the biggest lingering hazard. Our tour included a firm up-track (sorry split boarders) with mostly faceted soft snow surfaces, minimal breakable crust, and supportable old wind slabs. Few people were out enjoying the last of the sunny weather before the next low moves in Sunday.
No cracking, collapsing or recent avalanches were observed today.Weather
- Air Temp
- 8° F
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Winds in town were gusting strong and transporting silt. In Hatcher Pass, we experienced a calm to a light E breeze throughout our tour. Hatch Peak station showed moderate winds gusting to 39mph before 7am.
Snowpack
The general snowpack varied from firm, supportive and wind scoured, breakable crusts and facets all the way to the frozen layer above the ground. Surface forms were mainly 2-4mm surface hoar which appeared clumpy and frozen over facets. Our snowpack is relatively right side up, with a loosening and faceting upper pack. Snowpit tests on northerly aspects in Eldorado Bowl showed the possibility to find isolated pockets of energy where firm, buried wind slabs exist over faceted grains (see photo) in one pit and no propagation in the second pit.
If people are curious about our season history, annual averages and what is happening in the mountains compared to past years, come by Bleeding Heart Brewery on January 8th for the State of the Snowpack discussion at 6pm.