Quick report
Continuing my exploration of the wet, gradually draining and refreezing snowpack following the 11/14 rain event. On middle and upper elevation shaded slopes, a crust is forming at the surface of the snowpack as it cools and radiates out some heat. I found this extending up to the high point of my travels (10,300'). This formed from rain and wet snow. Underneath this crust, the snowpack is a warm, wet mess. The crust appeared to be limiting wet snow issues from impacting the upper elevations today, but at middle elevations where the crust was very soft or absent I was still wary of steep, soggy slopes, which posed the greatest avalanche hazard I encountered. I also avoided all steep, wide, open, snow-covered slopes at upper elevations where the 10/25 (depth hoar) problem may have been present, due to uncertainty about how the draining water might be affecting this snow. No signs of reactive wind slabs or surficial sluff issues today. Skiing was great on aspects that were holding strong, heavily weathered snow prior to 11/14 (solar margins at upper elevations); supportable and predictable crust with an inch of creamy snow on top. I found my worst turns of the season (so far!) on shaded slopes where the crust described above was unsupportable. These two condition types could be found within about 15 compass degrees of each other. SAC staff: I submitted several supplemental videos documenting snow conditions for your review.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
Light, intermittent, drizzling rain and graupel/ice pellets. No significant direct solar radiation observed today. Snow line came down to ~8,500' overnight but climbed back to 9,500+' during the day today.
Avalanche
Continuing to observe a cycle of generally small wet loose avalanches that failed between 8,700' and 9,500' during the 11/14 rain event (see photo below). These typically initiated on steep, rocky slopes and ran down to aprons below, stalling out as they ran into half-melted crusts from earlier rain events.