Observation: NWAC Forecaster

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Weather Summary

Thin high clouds with patchy valley fog. Sunny further east. Inversion was noticeable with warmer temperatures above 4,000ft or so. No wind at all on the summit for some time and temps felt warm, then some easterly winds began to blow lightly, and it felt cooler.

Snowpack Observations

The snowpack is settling out well. It was all a matter of aspect today, so here is a summary of what we found:
Southerly aspects have been baking down in the sun, to the point where we found ski supportable sun crust on some slopes. The snowpack is shrinking down on steep southerlies. We found a few crusts near the surface with weaker snow between, strong mid pack, then the basal layers were moist.
East aspects have an interesting set up with a thin sun crust and thin layer of faceted snow above. The basal layers still felt fairly weak here, and could easily observe the layer with an upside down pole probe while traveling.
Northerly aspects have a few layers of near surface facets in the upper 1ft, with a stout mid-pack and rounding/strengthening basal facets (1F). In a few places we found the snowpack to be very shallow, and it was all quite weak and faceted out.
A profile on N at 5,700ft found 140cm on the ground. CTM RP down 30cm on 1mm faceted grains (1F-).

Riding conditions were not bad with fast and soft settled powder and surface facets on N to ENE aspects. Any slope that tilted more south than direct east held a zipper/breakable crust that would not have been as enjoyable on skis.