New Snow and Variable Conditions on Tamarack Peak

The snow that fell last night changed quickly today. What was cold of t snow this morning turned to crusty heavy snow by this afternoon. Breakable crusts existed on all but the shaded, sheltered, and due N-facing slopes. Some of these even held thin breakable crusts by 4 pm. My skis would easily break through this crust into the new snow below while ascending. Conditions were more variable and less consistent on the descent. The snow remained cold and dry below the crust in most places. Some of the E-SE-S aspects held heavy sticky snow below the crusts.

I dug several quick hand pits on my way up Tamarack and found about 8 inches of new snow sitting on top of the old melt-freeze crusts. Quick tests showed decent bonding between the new snow and these old crusts - at least while the weather remained cloudy and cold. In areas that were exposed to the sun for even a brief time, signs of warming like runnels in the snow surface already started to form.

I found several exposed test slopes on the ridgeline near the top of Tamarack. On the NE facing side of the ridge, signs of wind scouring existed with some areas of crust exposed near the very top of the ridge. On the SW side of the ridge, small drifts of wind-blown snow existed. These did crack when kicked, but the largest one I could find only extended about 3 ft from the ridge and was only about 12 inches deep. I did see some avalanche activity from last night in the Gasex Chutes while driving to the trailhead, but I did not see any other avalanche activity during my afternoon tour.