After poking around a bit on the south face of Silver Tip and Manitoba areas in
Summit Lake I found many locations with poor snowpack structure:
Below around 2500′ there was a distinct crust (or a combination of crusts) below
a foot or more of settled powder (the pow that folks have been skiing the past
week+). The crust(s) are around 1-4″ thick depending on location. Under the
crust(s) I found fist hard, very sugary, weak snow in places and in other places
not quite as weak but still present. I believe this is similar to other
observations found at Summit Lake on slopes on the west side of the road.
Above ~3000′ the pack is thicker in certain areas (6′ or more) and I could not
feel any crusts or significant weaknesses with a probe test. However, there are
definitely slopes and starting zones that are shallower where weak faceted snow
sits under the old hard wind slabs and new snow. I’m suspect that the shallower
snow with the underlying weakness may be more the rule than the exception in Summit.
Snow surface:
Above ~3500′ – continuous 1-3″ wind slab covers low density snow (could become a
problem with a new load).
Below ~3500′ – mostly loose settled powder.