Powderhouse Observation

Powderhouse had a fresh coat of white this morning. New snow depths ranged from 1" at the base to about 4" near the summit. Snow depths increased less with elevation than I had anticipated. Along the summit ridge where there are frequently large wind drifts and cornices almost none of these were present. Except for a few areas where wind had previously scoured down to the crust there was little evidence of wind effect. Once dropping into the trees for roughly the upper 500 vertical feet, the new snow was almost deep enough to provide sufficient float and limit contact with the firm old snow. Once the snow depth decreased this also roughly coincided with the elevation where the old snow was still soft and wet. I left the area by 10:00am and clouds and cool temps had not yet provided enough warming for wet instabilities to develop.  

Photo 1: Just over an inch of new snow near the creek draining Grass Lake

Photo 2: Looking down towards Grass Lake

Photo 3: Not much evidence of wind loading on the summit ridge itself. You can see a very small (1") cornice next to exposed crust.

Photo 4: Once in the NE facing trees there was almost enough snow to hide the previous surface texture.

Photo 5: In the lower half of the Powerhouse the old snow surface was noticeably softer and clearly still wet under the fresh snow. 

Photo 6: Looking at the new snow at about 8500'. The old snow here was soft and wet.