Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Skinned up from 2400’ to 4200’. Stayed on 20-30 degree terrain. There is a hard crust layer that the new snow has NOT bonded well to. Near the hiway the crust is down 6” - at 4200’ accumulated new snow was close to 2’ - beautiful, light bottomless powder. In between these elevations the ridge was often difficult or impossible to skin because the crust was so thick. We stayed off of the steeper northeast facing bowls that were between 30 and 35 degrees. Ridgelines had less new snow, so the NE bowls were also somewhat wind loaded. Though the steeper slopes looked beautiful - it was an easy decision to not ski them. We did not dig to try to find the PWL as steeper slopes were too sketch anyway with the new snow.