Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

A true smorgasbord of challenging ski surfaces from 5,200 feet up to the summit. Full sun all day, some very thin high clouds and a surprisingly strong N wind along the summit ridge with very little snow available for transport. Dug a pit on a leeward side of a ridge at 7,400'. Total snow depth was 280cm, so the area sees a lot of wind deposit and is most likely not representative of snowpack in the area. 5cm rain crust. 25 cms of dry snow below the crust. An apparently soft interface above the layer below, but we couldn't get it to go with any amount of tapping or pounding in an isolated column. It did pop off when stepped on from above. Another 30cm slab below that, also quite dry and not very dense. Below that was very dense old snow. The rain crust extended all the way up to the summit of McLeod at 8099'. First class cramponing today along the summit ridge on extremely firm, highly textured snow. Happy to be on a low angle ridge skiing out. Some fun, fast, firm low-angle turns up high. Some weirdly soft, crumbly east facing snow that was decent in the middle. The bottom 1,000 feet or so required a variety of survival techniques.