Quick report
Today I headed up to Skyline Lake to see snow conditions after the latest snow/rain event. I began skinning from the parking lot around noon. Skies were overcast and winds were calm. There was a notable temperature inversion around 4500 ft - beneath this, snow was crunchy with a mostly supportable crust while above this, the snow was a couple centimeters of mashed potatoes over a supportable crust. While I was out, there was no new precipitation. I dug a pit near Skyline Lake on an East aspect at 5050 ft in sheltered terrain. The top 15 centimeters of the snow pack is a series of melt freeze grains and crusts with a notable 2 cm thick, knife hard crust 5 cm down from the snow surface. I also found a thin layer of 6mm buried surface hoar 40 cm down. In tests I got results on this layer: CT14 Q1 and ECTN15. Given the sheltered nature of this pit location I’m curious how widespread this layer is. Air temp at the pit location at 1230 was 35°F. Snow height was 160 cm, ski pen was 5cm, and boot pen was 20 cm. I saw debris from 2 small wet loose avalanches that released beneath cliff bands on north facing terrain just east of Steven’s Pass (I’m not sure when they released). Otherwise I didn’t observe any wet snow instabilities. With the variable snow conditions, I stuck to the road on the way out and even that felt a bit survival-y at times.