Snow conditions on Castle Peak

Below 7500 ft in this area, travel on snow remains possible; however, many rocks, stumps, trees and other obstacles still protrude through the snow surface. Above 7500 ft coverage becomes more consistent and uniform. The snow surface consisted of a thick and frozen and supportable rain crust at all elevations. Above 8500 ft. a thin layer of weak snow existed below one of the crusts in the upper snowpack. Tests on this layer indicated that if the layer starts to break the resulting fracture can travel through the layer. These tests also indicated that significant force would be required to break this layer because of the strong rain crust above it. This data is consistent with other recent observations on northerly aspects at upper elevations along the Sierra Crest.