Corn Snow and Crusts in Johnson Canyon

Snow started to soften on sun-exposed E-SE aspects as we were skinning up them around 9 am. We skinned over to a more sheltered NW aspect and found firm crusts on the northerly slopes. We also wanted to check on older layers buried in the snowpack. Our snowpit data from this area showed a more than 6 ft. deep snowpack consisting of well-consolidated snow (see pit for details). By the time we finished our pit work and went back over to the S and SE aspects at 11:45, 2 to 3 inches of soft corn snow had formed on top of a supportable melt-freeze layer. On E aspects a little less corn existed. By 1 pm W aspects also held 2 to 3 inches of corn snow. Ski cuts on steep test slopes did not produce any signs of instabilities today. We did notice that cornices have continued to pull away from ridges leaving cracks in the snow along the ridges.

Photo 1: 2 inches of corn on a supportable melt-freeze layer on a W aspect at 1:15.

Photo 2: Crack in the snowpack as a cornice pulls away from the ridge.