Improving SH strength on Judah/Donner.

Following a morning tour on Mt. Houghton (Mount Rose area) we went back to Mt. Judah/Donner Peak (Donner Summit area) for comparison snowpit tests on the March 24 surface hoar (SH) layer during the afternoon melt phase. This is the layer of concern for wet slabs. At the snowpit location (noted lat/long on map), adjacent to two previous pits that also looked at the March 24 SH layer we identified the remains of this SH layer. The SH has become increasingly rounded and no longer failed in the ECT. Scores today were ECTX while scores in the adjacent pit on April 13 were ECTP-23&30. The SH layer was located 45cm (1.5ft) below the snow surface in today's pit. The top 30 cm (1 ft) of the snowpack was wet with meltwater. The 15 cm (6in) of snow below this wet layer and the SH layer had increased in moisture content from moist on April 13 to moist to wet today. HS at this location is >3.6m and we were unable to probe to ground.

Taking a look at Wildflower Ridge, we saw some skier triggered cornice collapse from yesterday (April 15)