Cold and Frozen on Tamarack Peak

With a storm forecasted to come in later, we wanted to get a look at the snow just below the widespread rain crust to see how it is changing. We also suspected that travel conditions would be firm and uneven in most places. We chose to head over to a cold N facing area on the far east ridge of Tamarack Peak. On the approach, we encountered a variety of crusty conditions including firm supportable crusts and breakable crusts. We also found most of the snow surfaces we traveled to be uneven as a result of wind effects or existing tracks. We could see the weather blowing in as we toured. It started snowing very lightly at about 10:30 am. We dug a snowpit on a N facing slope in sheltered terrain and found the Dec 11 facets sitting below strong snow in the midpack. Some weak snow existed just below the surface crust as well.

From the top of the ridge, we could not see much due to low clouds obscuring Mt. Rose, Lake Tahoe, and the Sierra Crest. We descended on the variable and firm conditions. As we drove back over to Truckee, we noticed some cars coming from the Donner Summit area with snow on them and surmised that it must have snowed a bit more in that area. We also noticed a break in the storm around midday.