Mostly cloudy with calm winds and temps right around freezing.
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Magnum/PMS Bowl
Toured up to PMS Bowl via Taylor Creek. Conditions were suboptimal down low- those refrozen tracks from last week are brutal! Good skiing up high though.
We were hunting for weak layers ahead of this next round of snow and wind. We did not see any sign of the surface hoar that we had noticed last week. There was a crust up to about 2800′ with a light dusting of snow on top, which will be a concern when we start building storm and wind slabs on top. The October facet layer gave us poor test results at 3200′, and no results at 3000′ or 2500′.
Weather
Snow surface
Heinous crust up to 1800'. Dust on supportable crust to 2800'. 6-10" soft, dry snow above 2800'.
Snowpack
We dug pits at 2500', 3000', and 3200'. They were all quite different:
Pit 1 (NW aspect, 2500'):
The entire snowpack was moist, with the exception of two wet layers mid-pack. The facets on the ground were rounded and did not look alarming at all in this pit. ECTX. The crust from last weekend's storm was more of a series of crusts with some rounded grains in between. More details in attached snowpilot profile.
Pit 2 (S aspect, 3000'):
Breakable melt/freeze crust was buried about 6" deep. October facets were not reactive in this pit either. The snowpack was dry in this pit.
Pit 3 (SW aspect, 3200'):
Dry snowpack. October facets were 1-2mm, and propagated in an ECT (ECTP22) at the ground. There was a barely noticeable crust about 8" down, but it was really hard to tease out.
Looking at Sunburst from right above the alders. 11.22.2022
Looking back towards Taylor Pass from alder line. 11.22.2022
Looking up at the northwest end of Magnum from alder line. 11.22.2022
North end of Seattle Ridge. 11.22.2022
South end of Seattle Ridge. 11.22.2022
George in a snowpit at 3000', with the south end of Turnagain Pass in the background. 11.22.2022
A few newer looking debris piles on the north side of Cornbiscuit. These may have been from back on 11/13, since most of the precip that has fallen since then has been rain. 11.22.2022
Snowpit at 3200'. 11.22.2022
The infamous October facets. 11.22.2022
Snowpit profile from 2500'. 11.22.2022
Snowpit profile from 3200'. 11.22.2022
We need some more snow up here so we can start riding! View from the moto lot. 11.22.2022