Overcast all day with patches of blue in the early afternoon.
Temps steady at 20 - 25F.
North winds, light with moderate gusts more in the valley than at 2500' Snow was lightly drifting.
New snow: 3" at the highway at 3pm, 4" at 2500' at 2pm, steady S1 all afternoon.
Observation: Summit
Location: Tenderfoot
Skinned up Tenderfoots west aspect and rode down its north aspect. I was trying to see how well the new snow was bonding to the old surface/thaw crust, which layers were still concerning after the warmup, and how the warmup changed the snowpack. It was a awesome day, mostly overcast but clear enough to enjoy being in the woods. The snow occasionally snowed straight down like I was in a snow globe. One of my favorite storm events.
Weather
Snow surface
West Aspect: Harder crust that was faceting and easy to punch through. New snow was not bonding very well to it. Got thinner and less punchy as I got higher. It was pretty nice.
North Aspect: Thinner thaw crust with was barely noticeable with 4" new snow on top. Bonding was better.
Snowpack
I dug a pit on the West and North aspect of Tenderfoot.
1) 2300', west aspect, 30deg, 2 crusts in upper snowpack. 15cm down the second crust had test results: CT12Q2, ECTX. Below the crusts is a cold layer of facets. The bottom 30cm of the snowpack is previously frozen/dry basal facets that had edges and round corners.
2) 2500', north aspect, 30deg. 2 crusts in upper snowpack. 20cm down the second crust had test results: CT7Q2, ECTX. Below the crust is a cold layer of facets. The bottom 5cm of the snowpack is previously frozen/moist basal facets that had edges and round corners. Interesting.
In both pits: The warm days we had did heat up the snowpack quite a ways down. There is a ~40cm layer of facets below the crusts that is quite a bit colder, probably forming post warmup when temps dropped.
Only photo I managed. Overcast skies, light snow transport,