No red flags today
Observation: Girdwood
Location: Max's
Quick lap on Max’s this afternoon to take a look at surface conditions and see how deep the melt-freeze cycles have been penetrating. We did not see any concerning signs while we were out. We dug one quick pit on a west aspect at about 2500′ and found the upper 10-12″ of the snowpack was either moist or wet. A slight change of aspect to the northwest had dry snow on the surface.
Observer Comments
Weather
Cloudy skies and light easterly winds. Temperatures in the high 20's or maybe 30.
Snow surface
The surface was most to wet on top of a supportable crust up to about 2300'. There was a thin but breakable crust up to around 2800', with supportable crust on the surface above 2800'. Snow surface was dry on NW aspects down to at least 2500'.
Snowpack
We dug one quick pit on a west aspect at about 2500', and found moist to wet snow in the upper 10-12" of the snowpack, with 1F hard dry snow below that. Total depth was about 11' (340 cm). There was 2" wet snow on the surface, capped by a very thin (1mm) ice lens.
We didn't get on any due-north facing slopes, but the northwesterly aspects were dry on the surface. The solar aspects softened up just enough to make for good surface conditions up to about 2800', with firm surfaces above that.
Snowpit at 2500' on a west aspect. 04.16.2022
We switched to bootpacking at around 2800' when the surface was too slick to skin on. 04.16.2022