ECT in Cabin Creek

Our group spent the morning snowmobiling and snowboarding around the Cabin Creek area and below Tinkers Knob. Our main objectives for the day was see how coverage is and how the snowpack is setting up. Average snowpack depth ranged from 70-125cm, and was relatively unsupportable with boot penetration considerably more that our ski pen. Wind drifted snow and fresh windslabs exsisted on most ridgelines we encountered. Our group dug into the snow to find a total around 45cm of new snow over the previous two storm cycles, with only 15cm new snow from 12/16-17 storm. We were able to easily identify the December 11 facet layer about 45cm below the surface. We performed an ECT which failed on the 19th tap and propagated across the entire block via sudden calapse, our failure plane was unsurpisingly on the Dec 11 facets. Despite the current Tahoe snowpack resembling something more like you might find in a more interior mountain range, we were able to consistantly find great ski quality while keeping it low angle.