Observations from Rose Knob Peak

A shallow melt-freeze snowpack exist in this area. Below 7,800', snow patches are less than 6 inches deep on E-SE aspects and require active route finding to link together continuous snow cover. S-SW aspects below 8,500' hold less snow cover with discontinuous snow cover in most area. Above 8,500' - 8,900' snow cover becomes fairly continuous on all aspects.

Photo 1: Looking uphill on SE aspect at 7,800' where a fairly abrupt transition from a patchy 6 inch deep snowpack to a more continuous 1 to 2 foot deepsnow pack was noted on E-SE aspects.

Photo 2: Looking downhill from the same spot where photo 1 was taken (SE aspect at 7,800') where snow cover was much more shallow and disconnected.

Photo 3: Looking down a SW aspect at 8,500'.

Photo 4: Transition zone on SE-S-SW aspects where snow cover becomes continuous above the 8,500' - 8,900' zone.

Descending from 9,600' at 10:30 am revealed 1 to 2 inches of wet surface snow over supportable melt-freeze and transitional snowpack conditions on E-SE-S aspects traveled. At that time no evidence of wet snow instability was observed with ski turns moving only spray and no roller balls or loose wet snow avalanches.