Incline Peak

We meandered up the normal skin track to Incline Peak on foot today looking at snow distribution, depth, and metamorphism before this incoming storm. Snow cover in this area was mainly limited to northerly - easterly aspects while most southerly - westerly facing slopes were melted out. The deepest drifts we observed were around boot top to shin deep on NE facing terrain.

Heading up through the NE facing trees we stopped a few times to take a look at the structure of the thin snowpack. At around 8,830' on the first steep rollover we found 17cm of total snow with fist hard, faceted grains at the ground that were wet enough to make a snowball with. Higher up around 9,200' the total snow depths were closer to 20cm with more pronounced faceting where unconsolidated, sugary grains near the ground would not form a snowball.

Gorgeous day overall with 51°F recorded at the top, however the weak faceted snow on northerly aspects is concerning before a decent storm load.