No signs of instability seen.
Observation: Portage / Placer
Location: Placer Valley
Rode into Placer Valley and up into an area called Squirrel above the Spencer Bench cabin. High point was 4,000′ up an un-named glacier.
Observer Comments
Weather
Partly cloudy, temps in the low teens in Placer Valley and felt like low 20'sF above 15,000'.
Winds were calm... great day to be out!
Snow surface
From sea level to 1,000' around 1-1.5 feet of snow over ice or a hard crust.
From 1,000' and above soft settled powder. Boot penetration around 20".
Snowpack
Wind ripples were evident on Comet Pk (see photo) and one natural wind slab was seen on the north aspect of Comet Pk (see photo) that likely occurred in the past couple days.
Total snow pack depths were 2-3 feet below 1,000' then at 2,000' around 5-6' of total depth. From 2,000' to 4,000' total depth seemed to vary from 2 to 10 feet pending wind effect from prior storms. Essentially, the higher elevations didn't seem to be much deep than the mid.
Dug one pit at 2,200'. Snow depth 6 feet, west aspect
No weakness found in top meter. The Dec 1 crust was around 1cm thick with another thin crust right underneath. No weakness found around these crusts. Also of note, probing did not show any obvious signs of weak snow at the bottom of the pack. This was a bit surprising, in a good way. Overall good stability was observed today.
Natural wind slab on N side of Comet Pk. Released sometime in last couple days. Looks to be around a foot deep.
Comet Pk with wind ripples on surface. A bit hard to see...
A look to the east with Carpathian in the distance.
Spencer Bench cabin. This cabin can be rented in the winter and sits to the NE above Spencer Glacier at 2,000'. Cool spot!