Clear skies and calm to light winds. Temperatures in the single digits at low elevations and 20s at upper elevations.
Toured up Kern Creek and over a 3000′ pass that is southeast of Big League (Hibbs Peak). Then descended into Winner Creek and skied out the Winner Creek trail.
Clear skies and calm to light winds. Temperatures in the single digits at low elevations and 20s at upper elevations.
Down low there was a layer of large surface hoar crystals on top of a few inches of soft faceted snow on top of a supportable crust. As we climbed we found an icy crust on the surface that was breakable in some areas and supportable in others. There was a lot of wind affected snow (sastrugi) above treeline. Descending into Winner creak there was still a thin breakable (2-4mm) crust on the surface, but there was consistently 2-6" of soft snow underneath.
We dug several hand pits and jumped on test rolls to assess surface snow conditions and never found any reactive wind features or interfaces in the upper snowpack. We did not stop to dig a formal snow pit.
Large surface hoar crystals at lower elevations
Still a fair bit of alder on the closest lines in Kern Creek
Happy to keep our feet (mostly) dry crossing Kern Creek!
Lots of wind affect at upper elevations
Looking towards Placer Valley
Wind affect at the pass.
Upper Winner Creek
Old wet avalanche across Winner Creek Trail