Temps around 15, calm wind. A big cloud sat in the valley from around 1500-2500 feet and started to break up revealing sunny skies when we reached 2500.
Observation: Girdwood
Location: Raggedtop
Toured from Crow Creek rd. up to treeline on Raggedtop. Dust on crust all the way.
Weather
Snow surface
4-6 inches of blower pow on top of a stout rain crust. Lots of rain runnels especially on the more open slopes near treeline, but surface snow was relatively dry.
Snowpack
Dug a pit at 2500 ft, E facing slope ~30 degrees. Snow depth ~130cm.
Noted several crusts in the snowpack, including the 2-3" upper rain crust and at least two other, thinner crusts below. Bulk of the snowpack is very wet and consolidated snow. Thick layer of facets at the base, but rounding noticeably.
Column test showed a crack/settle on CT26 at 66cm, but when we went to pull the cracked off, the entire block stayed together and pulled out as one piece at the ground level. The snowpack is very wet all the way to the ground.
Closeup with more detail on the crusts