Deep snow at Marion

Traveled to the Marion Lake area to look for surface storm slab instabilities and observe persistent slab conditions.

• A deep snowpack was found at all elevations with ridgetop locations generally around an 80" (2 meter) depth.
• Surprisingly, most locations were not affected by the strong east winds which buffeted the nearby John F. Stevens Canyon area on Saturday.
• The snow surface was generally soft and had not become cohesive on the north and south slopes that I traveled.
• The stout Thanksgiving rain crust has retained it's integrity at this location ( 5" thick, Pencil hard) and is now buried 5' below the surface sandwiched by 2-4" layers of weak faceted snow. Stability test results showed no propagation on this layer.
• The top layer of the snowpack is comprised of 28" of settled snow from our last storm.
• A thin sun crust formed on steep sunny aspects both Sunday and Monday.
• In areas without a sun crust, the snow surface was comprised of near surface facets at mid and upper elevations.