Observations from Poison Canyon and Mt. Reba

Location Name: 
Poison Canyon and Mt. Reba
Region: 
Bear Valley Area
Date and time of observation: 
Sat, 04/19/2014 - 10:30
Location Map: 
United States
38° 30' 19.242" N, 120° 0' 19.872" W
See map: Google Maps
US



Observation made by: Forecaster
Snowpit Observations
More detailed information about the snowpack: 

Observations made while touring in the Poison Canyon and Mt. Reba area from 7,600' to 8,700' this morning indicated that a poor overnight snow surface refreeze had occurred in this area. On open slopes the top 2 cm of the snow surface had refrozen as a 1F hard melt freeze crust. In heavily tree covered areas, little to no snow surface refreeze had occurred. The snow surface transitioned quickly around 9:30 to 10:00 am from supportable crust to deep wet snow with a short period of breakable crust in between.

The snowpack in this area between 7,600' and 8,700' has seen significant melt out on SE-S-SW aspects. Remaining areas of snow cover on SE-S-SW aspects are less than 30 cm deep. On E and W aspects an HS of up to 1 m exists. On NW-N-NE aspects HS is 1 to 2 m.

Photo 1: Sun cups existed on all snow covered areas on all aspects traveled in this area.

Photo 2: Melted out areas on SE-S aspects in Poison Canyon.

Photo 3: Mt. Reba and upper Round Valley as viewed from the top of Poison Ridge. Little to no snow on SE-S-SW aspects with significant snow cover remaining on N aspects in the foreground.

Photo 4: Looking into Underwood Bowl on the N side of Mt. Reba. Evidence of past natural cornice collapse with no signs of recent avalanche activity.

Snowpack photos: 
Weather Observations
Blowing Snow: 
No
Cloud Cover: 
50% of the sky covered by clouds
Air temperature: 
Above Freezing
Wind Speed: 
Light
Air temperature trend: 
Warming
Wind Direction: 
Southwest