Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Skinned up the Maggie’s track. The bit of new snow was heavy all the way to the ridge—good snowball snow. S/SW/SE aspects all ravaged by rain, wind, and warm temps. Old tracks on Maggie’s face were melted out to the ground. I dug a pit on Maggie’s backside just to get a sense of where things stand after the carnage last week.

I’m not the world’s greatest pit digger or observer, but here goes. W aspect; 5383’ elevation; snow depth was 165cm. 4F in the top 5cm of new snow down to a raincrust; 1F all the way through the New Year’s refills down to the Christmas Crust around a depth of 120cm; P below that down to 80cm where I stopped digging bc it was basically ice. I isolated a column (not the prettiest thing you’ve ever seen), and got a block(ish) to slide with a shovel tap test after 4 elbow strength taps (see picture). It appeared to slide (crumble?) on a layer 20cm down that looked mostly like wet rounded crystals (see, um, other picture). All in all not very reactive.

For what the conditions were Wrinkles and Maggie’s Nose skied well. Some combination of soft stuff over a thin breakable crust with mashed potatoes underneath. Shallow snow but at least there was snow, unlike the Face.