Snowpack Obs from Silver Peak

We went for a tour in the Silver/Gold area today, and found a variety of conditions.

On the southerly aspects of these peaks, the snowpack is thin and presented challenging skinning, but it is passable. All SE-S-SW aspects had very little to no snow before the 2 most recent storms, and therefore did not have the Dec 11th weak layer. The sheltered W-NW aspects of the southerly ridges show a slightly deeper snowpack and the facets are visible, but show no signs of instability in the elevations that we looked at (6200-7600'). Surface conditions ranged from cold snow with widespread surface hoar (photo #1 & 2) to sun affected and with melt-freeze crusts and wind effected snow near ridgeline. 

The northerly aspects of Silver/Gold present a much deeper snowpack (HS80-120cm), and the facets are very easy to feel with a ski pole in near/below Treeline in open areas, and whumphing is prevalent as well. Up high, in areas that were exposed to the east wind, the new snow has been scoured away leaving firm snow and crusts. Wind slab formation was small and highly variable above treeline in this zone, it appears that snow has been moving around quite a bit, from multiple directions. We stopped and dug a bit @ 8000' in an area that was sheltered from the east wind where we noticed a particularly significant whumph, along with a very noticeable drop with the good old "ski pole penetrometer test". These observations revealed the Dec 11th weak layer is alive and well in this area. All tests done indicated that failures are still possible on this layer, and a close look at the faceted grains that make up this particular layer do not show any signs of rounding yet. (see video, photo #3 and profile). Cornice growth was small and they are not particularly sensitive. The Silver/Gold saddle presented similar red flags, with multiple wumphs and obvious drops with pole tests. Both these locations are N-NE-E open areas near and below treeline.