Light snow throughout the day - melting on contact at the road - with 1-2” accumulating during tour. 2-3” had fallen overnight. Overcast or obscured sky, occasional light NE wind, temp 33 at the road and slightly cooler up high. Rain snow line was near 500’ when we left at 3 pm.
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Tincan trees
Tincan trees – northern end of them – up to 2000’ between 10:30 am and 3 pm
Weather
Snow surface
2-4” of soft new snow, over a few inches of soft older snow in wind protected areas. Ski penetration of 3-5”. The surface snow was dry above 1500’ when we left at 3pm, but the top few inches were moist below that elevation. A thin, non supportable crust was also present on all slope angles below 1500’, buried now by 3-6” of soft snow. NW aspects above 1500’ were surprisingly crust free in the top 6” of the snowpack.
Snowpack
Under today’s snow we found 2-4” of soft, fist hard snow in wind protected areas, but at treeline previous winds from Thursday night deposited small slabs - up to 8” thick - on more westerly aspects. Shovel tilt tests revealed 1cm surface hoar down below that slab, and it was also present in non-winded areas down 4-6”, but it only failed with hard taps. No deeper tests were conducted.
Shovel tilt test at 2000’ where winds from Thursday night left a 6-8” slab. The 1cm surface hoar failed with hard taps.
This shovel tilt was performed at 1500’ in a wind sheltered location. Note the smaller old snow layer, but like above, the buried surface hoar failed with hard taps. The new snow had also bounced off the top of the old snow by the time failure occurred.
Overcast or obscured skies all day, with ski penetration of 3-5”
Melty McMeltface at the road when we left at 3 pm