Substantially warmer in the Summit Lake area Sunday morning / midday than any time since Friday afternoon at least. -3.5C at 2,700’ at 2:30p
Sky: Overcast
Precip: none
Winds: mostly light, occasionally gusting moderate from N/NE
Observation: Summit
Location: Colorado
Toured up Colorado Mtn. to the first of the E-NE facing gullies at about 2,700’, dug a very quick pit and skied incredibly good snow all the way back to the road.
Weather
Snow surface
Surface hoar growing through all elevation bands up to 2,700’. Touring partners reported a change to wind effected surface snow just a little bit higher than where I stopped to dig, probably 2,800’.
Soft dry powder all the way back to the road.
Snowpack
I observed a very similar snowpack to Moderow from Dec. 30th. I dug in a slightly deeper spot, it was HS 130-140cm in the area of my pit.
Key features were pencil hard melt crust 90cm down from surface, as well as band of what I’m assuming is buried surface hoar 25cm deep.
Performed two instability tests (very quickly) - CTN and ECTX.
Pit profile