Professional Observation

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Key Points

• Headed to Lee Vining canyon and made it up to 9600ft on northerly aspects beneath East Peak Wednesday.
• Upper Dana Plateau and the Sierra Crest were obscured by moving cloud and strong west to southwest winds with very light snow flurries. It looked darker even to the north mid morning by the Bridgeport area.
• Warm temperatures and relatively sunny conditions made for awful sticky conditions with the 1-2″ of new snow on the surface sticking like crazy. Glopping was out of control and made for arduous travel today.
• Overall snowpack below 8500ft was shallow and faceted and loose throughout to the ground. I could easily punch my pole to the ground and had ski penetration of 20-25cm. On the way down I was getting light sugar sluffs from this shallow faceted snowpack. Obstacle ridden and more or less complete crap at this point off the lower moraine into the bottom of the canyon.
• Overall depth of snowpack around 9500ft is a meter or less and although still supportable is faceted throughout. Right above tree line in this area, southwest winds were cross loading northeasterly aspects which made for 5 or 6 good turns above the trees. Dust on crust conditions, temperature crusts and light new snow accumulations on top of near surface facets made for decent skiing on due north aspects in sheltered timber.
• No signs of instability, no cracking, no collapsing.
• Not going to find much of anything of interest in this dead and ancient snowpack from December.