Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Below 4,000' the Wednesday rains softened all layers of snow down to the ground to the extent that snowshoes were needed to avoid deep post-holing.

At 4,000' to 6,000', snow had a thin fragile ice coating an underneath was firm enough to easily support crampon travel. At 6,000' on SE and S slopes there were hard layers at 30, 90, and 190 cm below the surface

At 6,000-8,000', there was no surface crust at 6,000 transitioning to a thin rime layer by 7600'. The east side of Monitor Ridge (7100-7600') has accumulated well in excess of 200 cm of snow since 12/29. There were hard layers at 95 and 210 cm. The snow was all firm enough that crampons only sunk 2-6 inches. I dug down to the 95 cm layer and found it strongly frozen to the snow layer above.