Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Got to the top of Quilcene Ridge without floatation today. Snowpack was considerably less than I was expecting (max I found along the road was 4”~6” ). The approach walk from NF-27 was 2.5 miles. I stopped before the Y in the road up NF-27, aka Big Quilcene Rd.
On the flip side, snowpack near Hamma Hamma (approaching Lena Lake Trailhead), was much deeper and weak. The consolidating snow made traveling in my CrossTrek impossible. Car was high centering 2 miles from the trailhead and I had to dig out a turnaround.
I tried going up Webb Mountain afterwards and I ran into deep snowpack up NF-2510 around 1.25k’. Didn’t want to blaze a tread with my CrossTrek and have to dig myself out again, so I called it a day.
The summary of the obs is: snowpack coverage is variable in the rain shadow, but low on south and east facing aspects. Northern aspects seem to be the highest concentrations, with western aspects coming in second. My hypothesis is that either it was warmer near Quilcene, or the rainfall was higher, whereas Hamma Hamma area is just now getting precipitation and consolidating.