Professional Observation

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Snow Stability

Key Points

• Surface conditions on solar aspects off the top of  Mammoth Mountain were quite textured and very firm off the top. Boot pen= 0 cm
• From 10,500′ to 9,500’or so I noticed that sliding conditions became much more pleasant. the top 1- 2 cm was still frozen and knife hard however about 15 cm below this was moist and 4f hard. This crust was easily broken while skiing and provided predictable and soft-ish turns. Boot Pen= 20 cm
• I ventured into more north-facing terrain above Horseshoe Lake and found soft cold faceted surface snow (with a periotic thin zipper crust) down to about 9500′.
• below 9000′ i found surface snow on more northerly aspects to be moist, sticky, and unsupportive. Rollerballs were easy to initiate with pinwheels up to 60 cm in diameter.
• No loose wet activity was observed on my travels today.  I don’t think northerly aspects had warmed to the point of instability on my tour today however more solar aspects at lower elevations could have been more suspect.