Observations from Silver Peak

It felt later than March 9th skinning into Silver Peak today. Below 6800 ft, we had to take our skis off several times to walk across exposed sections of the Pole Creek Rd. or exposed dirt on our approach path. Once we got above 7000 ft. snow coverage improved but numerous exposed or barely covered obstacles still existed. At this point, about 1-2 inches of new snow existed on top of a supportable crust.

On sun-exposed slopes, the surface snow had started to get sticky by 10 am. We found an E facing test slope where a ski kick produced some very small roller balls in the new snow. The snow on the N aspects remained cold and soft. As we ascended the low angle N aspects, new snow depth increased to about 3 inches in some areas. On these colder shady slopes, the new snow rested on top of a thin breakable crust with softer snow below. By the time we reached the ridgeline around 10:45, cloud cover and wind started to increase and slowed down any warming that had started during the morning hours.

We found soft slabs of wind drifted snow up to 6 inches deep on the leeward (N-NE) side of the ridge and wind textured snow surfaces on the ridge itself. The soft wind slabs (4f) rested on top of similarly soft old snow surfaces (4f). Snowpit tests (ECTNs and PST 87/100 END) and ski cuts targetting these soft wind slabs did not produce any signs of instability.