Observation: NWAC Forecaster

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Weather Summary

Started out with cool temperatures and frozen surfaces below the inversion, which seems to mix out about 10 am. Then warm temperatures allowed surfaces to soften. Moderate E winds keep temperatures cooler near ridge tops.

Snowpack Observations

We started out at the Gold Creek SnoPark and found very slick frozen surfaces that made for challenging sled riding with limited traction. Temperatures were cool and surfaces were frozen up to 4900ft.

We stopped and dug into a NE aspect to see how the snowpack has adjusted to the most recent warm and sunny weather. Even shady slopes were not spared from the hot weather and have a thin breakable melt-freeze crust on the surface. There is still approximately 15cm of dry settled storm snow above the late January Crust-Facet sandwich. We completed a few stability tests with mixed results on these layers. We also found a layer of graupel ↓20, while interesting this layer seemed inconsistent in distribution through the snowpit.

NE aspect, 4900ft
HS 235cm
CTX
CT13 SP ↓27 on rounding facets
ECTN 17 ↓27

Surfaces softened quickly and riding conditions improved significantly on the way back down at around 11:30am