Observations from Talking Mountain

Location Name: 
Talking Mountain
Region: 
Echo Summit Area
Date and time of observation: 
Tue, 12/29/2015 - 12:00
Location Map: 
United States
38° 49' 58.2528" N, 120° 4' 7.9392" W
See map: Google Maps
US


Red Flags: 
Recent avalanche activity
Obvious avalanche path
Terrain Trap
Observation made by: Professional Observer
Snowpit Observations
More detailed information about the snowpack: 

Pic 1: Hard to tell the difference today between huge 10-15mm plated stellars and surface hoar. SH observed along N side of Becker/Talking ridge to summit of Talking. On S side and below ridgetop on N side, stellars caught the light in a similar fashion but were just huge plated stellars.

Pic 2: Shallow, insignificant windslab on S side of Talking.

Pic 3: Recent shallow avalanche above Cup Lake. Likely cornice drop failure. No tracks observed from a distance, though tracks were visible on the Desolation side, so it's possible that this was an intentional trigger upon approach from Hwy 50 side.

Pic 4: Previous N/NE winds redistributed snow for the first 500 vertical feet of descending through the trees on N side of Talking.

HS in gladed SE facing terrain at 8000ft probed at 200cm. On N aspects of Talking, snow above 12/24 crust has settled to 30cm with ski pen to 20cm. The 10cm of snow above 12/24 crust is 1f to 4f hard and bonding well to crust, with no faceting observed above or below crust. On NE aspect of Flagpole, 12/24 crust is much more observable to ski pen, though still no faceting observed above or below.

Snowpack photos: 
Weather Observations
Blowing Snow: 
Yes
Cloud Cover: 
Clear
Air temperature: 
Below Freezing
Wind Speed: 
Light
Precipitation: 
None
Air temperature trend: 
Warming
Wind Direction: 
Northwest
Accumulation rate: 
None
More detailed information about the weather: 

Afternoon NW winds increased in speed and some snow plumes were observed along ridgetops in Desloation (Price and Dicks).