Observation: NWAC Forecaster

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Weather Summary

The new snow layer was low density and not wind affected most everywhere we traveled. Midday filtered sunshine and partly cloudy skies were bookended with predominantly overcast skies at the start and finish of the day. Temps stayed cool and snow stayed dry all day above ~2500ft

Snowpack Observations

We started our day at about 2000ft, where there was about 2" of new snow and few patches of old snow. By 3000ft there was a highly variable 6-12" of old snow, and at 4300' there was about 5', which increased to about 8' at our max elevation around 5500'. In general, this being the first day of February we were surprised at how shallow the snow cover was now that we're getting into mid-winter, with creeks, holes, and rock hazards present nearly everywhere we traveled.

Firmer old drifts were visible above approx 4700ft yet were unreactive. The 3-6" of new snow was not wind-affected, aside from areas within a few feet of ridegelines, and made for good riding. Our ski penetration was about 8". We did several hand pits and a couple test pits. The MLK crust was usually around 2ft deep from 4500ft and up. Looser, slightly sugary snow was noted just above the crust in the hand pits and test pits. The layer was rounding facets and we didn't get any stability tests to fail on that layer. Meanwhile, closer to the surface, beneath the last 2 days' snow we found near surface facets, although they were mixed in with plenty of decomposing forms and the layer wasn't too alarming at the time. After digging pits and doing stability tests with minimal results we felt good about skiing steep nearby terrain. As expected, the extent of our avalanche activity was small, shallow sluffs on steep terrain.