No signs of instability observed at the snow surface.
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Tincan Trees
Up standard track to top of Tincan trees to practice snow assessments. Left cars around 10 am, returning at 3:30 pm. Light snow all day, calm winds until the very end of the day. Visibility at low elevations varied throughout the day but mid to higher elevations were covered by clouds and the storm moving through all day.
Observer Comments
Weather
Light snow all day with little accumulation. Calm winds until about 3 pm when a 10 mph breeze started. During our last run, the snow turned to light freezing rain that froze on our goggles but that seemed to taper off by the time we reach the parking area.
Snow surface
Still very soft snow surface over most of the area we skied. Ski penetration about 4” (~10 cm). No evidence of wind effect up high that we could see. Common Bowl in the clouds and poor light all day.
Snowpack
Dug two pits at the top of Tincan Trees around 2,500 feet, about 100 feet apart. Total depth is around 200cm. Snowpack down to the Halloween crust (150cm down) is mostly one finger hard with the top 10 cm being fist hard.
Pit #1: southern aspect, 10 degree slope; dug down to just below Halloween crust; ECTX but then propagated about 30 cm down the column after a few very strong shovel whacks.
Pit #2: northern aspect, 20 degree slope; dug down to the Halloween crust, finding multiple, thin ice layers there. ECTN 25 at the same depth as in pit #1 (30 cm down from surface).