Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Snow was sticky when I showed up around noon. Summit East had gotten a fair bit of sun early morning.
Skinning inbounds wasn't too bad. Shaded areas (Sissy's, etc) had sticky, but more consolidated snow. Snow above Rampart Chair changed subtilely to slightly drier snow, but it was still fairly sticky, all things considered.
Skinning completely off-piste showed breakable crust and ski-pen was about 2". Went off-piste around Hidden Valley Chair with boots and ran into some unconsolidated wet snow with a boot pen of 2"~3".
Got some good pics of Catherine, but it was difficult to see the rest of the area. No obvious instabilities coming off Catherine.
Riding down was nice, firm groomer with occasional start of corn snow-like conditions in the sun.
Weather was clearish below treeline and there was a decent cloud deck chilling around 4k'~5k'. Temps were around 37° when I arrived and 42° when I left at 15:00 from the parking lot according to my car.