1M+ Early Season Snowpack on Incline Lake Peak

Toured the Incline Lake Peak area today to get a sense of snow coverage, look for evidence of wind loading, and to look for the 11/26 facet layer.

Coverage, in general, is good in this area. The lake is mostly covered with a few spots that are wetting through the skin track, the creek has a few locations that allow crossing. Probing along my tour showed snow heights from 115-135 cm. The recent wet and heavy snowfall from 12/1 has helped cover many obstacles, but many are still present. The Northeast Bowl run (photo 1) still has many trees, rocks, logs and other obstacles above and not far below the snow surface. 

The west ridge of Incline Peak that typically has large cornices and wind loading has not developed any cornices as of yet. Ski cuts and kicks on smaller wind loaded pockets in this area yielded no results. 

Northern near and below treeline areas that were protected from direct solar input on 12/3 held soft snow and mostly smooth ski surface conditions (Photo 2). Other areas that had been exposed to a bit more sun had some tree bombs and a thin melt-freeze crust that made skiing more challenging.

The included snowpit (dug at pin-drop location) showed a right side up snowpack with the 11/26 facet layer present but showing signs of rounding.