Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Terrain: We traveled in the very eastern section of the West South area off Hwy 12. While we were traveling in the West South. we spend plenty of time looking into the Eastern terrain. We had perfect views of the American River areas, Bumping Ridge, Sand Ridge, Pinegrass Ridge, and Darland Mt.

Snowpack:
Low elevation snowpack continues to struggle. Only about 1-2' on the ground between 3000-4000'. Above that the snowpack quickly increases. Many of the upper elevations look well filled in.

On E-S-W aspects a thin breakable sun crust formed today. On Northerly aspects, 5-8cmm surface hoar was still present late in the day.

Avalanches:
We spent lots of time with binoculars and excellent visibility combing over the East South zone. We noticed 3 natural D2's on Darland Mt's West-Face, 6800'. We also observed anoother larger crown on McNeil Peak SW 5800'. Other than these four slides, there was no notable avalanche activity on the S-W-NW aspects. Given the recent strong westerly winds, there may be more recent avalanche activity on other aspects that were hidden from our view.