Quick report
I observed no avalanche problems where I traveled. Tomorrow's storm will bury a variable snow surface, which generally looks better where it's heavily weathered (sun, wind, or both) and worse where it's uniformly faceted (shaded, sheltered terrain) and where thin sun and rain crust + facet combinations exist.
No signs of instability.Weather
- Air Temp
- n/o
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- n/a
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- none
Mostly clear skies with some high, thin clouds moving in from the N in the afternoon. Wind blew light from the NW >8,800'. No drifting snow.
Snowpack
There was a skiff of snow here from last week that was melted off on sunnier aspects. I found a thin rain crust + facet combination below about 8,000'. A melt-freeze crust of varying thickness exists on all slopes facing the sun. In wind-sheltered, shaded terrain, I found surface hoar and a well-connected, weak and faceted snow surface.
There's an ugly crust+facet combo where the sun crusts were thin on solar margins and on some shaded low elevation slopes. Slopes with single, thick melt-freeze crusts were rough and didn't look too bad. Similarly, heavily winded affected snow surfaces were rough, and portions of them that were faceted were not well connected.
The weak piles of facets on more sheltered and shaded slopes will be problematic, and I suspect we'll be talking about this layer for some time after burial.
Avalanche
No new avalanches.