Silver Peak Observations

We hiked in to monitor the snowpack in the Silver Peak area.  Continuous snow coverage was found around 8000' on northerly aspects with patchy snow below this elevation.  The snowpack in this area was similar to other places along the Sierra Crest, but was generally shallower with around 1 foot of snow.  Near surface faceting is occurring on the snow surface with the remainder of the snowpack being dense firm snow.  There is enough snow in many avalanche starting zones to provide a good bed surface for future avalanche activity as storms start to enter our area.  The firm and icy snow surface conditions are consistent with many other areas throughout the forecast region and we used crampons and ice axes to move through some terrain.