Variable Results and Variable Snow on Tamarack

Driving up to Mt. Rose, we could tell that some new snow had accumulated there last night by snow on the trees, on the road, and on top of the old snow surfaces once we got above 8400 ft. We could also see wind effects including some small areas of drifted snow and some scoured areas from the car.

Once we started skinning, we found 1 to 2 inches of new snow accumulation from last night. This snow was slightly more dense than the softer snow below on the sheltered northerly facing aspects. While we moved uphill, we kept probing with our poles to see if we could feel the Jan4 weak layer. Based on these pole probes and a few quick handpits, it seemed like this layer was less well developed than it is in other areas. We stopped to dig a more formal snowpit to get more details. Our snowpit data and tests agreed with our general observations and indicated less weakness than we have seen in other areas. One exception was a small drift above a creek that collapsed and cracked when we stepped on the edge of the drift. This unsupported steep creek bank failed on the Jan 4 weakness (photo).

We continued up into near treeline terrain to look for signs of wind slabs. We found small shallow drifts of new snow on some test slopes. These slopes also had much firmer older wind slabs below new snow. We kicked and jumped on numerous test slopes, and we only got some minor cracking in one of them after we had undercut the slope (photo). We did notice several large cornices above wind-loaded slopes and chose to avoid those. 

Overall snow surface conditions varied greatly from place to place. Generally, soft snow with a slightly more dense surface layer existed on the most sheltered N facing slopes. Anywhere with any wind exposure had wind affected snow surfaces. On more sun-exposed slopes breakable crusts existed.