Temp was 18 F in the parking lot at around noon. Mostly cloudy skies as we headed up, with decreasing cloud cover through the afternoon and mostly sunny skies by around 1:30 p.m. Winds were calm all afternoon.
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Sunburst
We toured to 3200′ and enjoyed the afternoon sunshine. 3-8″ soft snow on top of firm surfaces, with temps in the upper teens F and calm winds. There was just barely enough snow to skin from the parking lot, with about 6′ settled snow at 3200′. Signs pointed to good stability today, but a layer of surface hoar that had formed during the past few days and was buried by the light dusting of snow this morning will be something worth paying attention to after the next snow/wind loading event.
Weather
Snow surface
Thin coverage out of the parking lot, but there was barely enough snow to skin from the car. There was about 3" soft snow at the surface down low, increasing to 8-10" soft snow by 3200'.
Snowpack
We dug two pits on our way up (details below). The good news: The Halloween storm snow is moist and firm, with 1F hardness for the majority of the pack. The bad news: We found a layer of 5mm surface hoar buried about an inch deep by this morning's showers, which was present in our first pit at 1970', our second pit at 3200', and in several hand pits along the way. This corresponds with a similar layer observed on Seattle Ridge (See Allen Dahl's observation from 11/9), and will be something to pay attention to as this next round of snow begins.
Pit 1: Elev. 1970', NW aspect. Total depth 110 cm, with 15 cm soft snow on the surface.
Pit 2: Elev. 3200', SW aspect. Total depth 200 cm, with 30 cm soft snow on top.
Snowpit at 1970' on a NW aspect. 11.10.2021
Plenty of glide activity on Seattle Ridge in the background. 11.10.2021
More glide cracks and older glide avalanches looking at the north end of Seattle Ridge. 11.10.2021
A lot of glide activity on the south side of Tincan Proper. 11.10.2021