Headed up North Broken Leg Mountain to a max elevation of 6000' to get a first look at this winters base at mid-elevations. Also wanted to see what sort of a surface any new snow will fall upon as as we finally transition out of this groundhog day weather pattern.
Highlights: See snow profile plot.
Right-side-up snowpack though still thin up to 6000' in this area.
Surface snow consisted of 9cm of small grain facets sitting atop a fragile MF crust from the 11/5 wind and rain event. This surface layer was capped with ~1cm of rime. Thick stratus had blanked this area for days.
Deeper in the snowpack more dense rounding facets (or more likely faceted rounds?) formed a hard slab above a 17cm icy base layer. This icy layer was the consolidation of nearly 2 feet of October snow melting down around Halloween.
Shovel shear test broke at the ground.
Details: Snow depths ranged from 27cm at 4500' to 60cm at 6000' Encountered the stratus deck at 4900' and did not experience it's upper limit. Above 4900' rime was thick on the trees, shrubs, and still standing tall dried beargrass flowers. Travel was difficult due to the rediculous tangle of downed trees in some areas. Slippery trunks and collapses into the voids under trees made for even more fun. Traverses across even low slope angles were difficult due to the sandy/sugary nature of the surface snow not accepting an edge. Hardly even a breath of wind all day under OBS and then X skies. Some beautiful crevice hoar observed amongst the exposed rocks. This snow profile is hopefully the first of many from the snow study plot established at this location.
