Minimal new snow at Echo

An inch of new snow observed on wind sheltered slopes between the Echo Lakes SNO-PARK and Becker Peak. New snow on sunny slopes was on top of the 1/4 crust, with facets below. New snow on shady slopes was on top of a thin layer of facets above the 1/4 crust, on top of more facets. Very small pockets of 2-3" of wind deposition were observed immeditately downslope of ridgeline. Wind loaded snow on shady slopes was not bonding well to the facets above the 1/4 crust, but we did not find enough wind loaded new snow to be of concern today. The 1/4 crust on shady slopes is so weak that we skied the facet layer below it, and resulting ski conditions were much better than expected. The Dec 12th crust still has facets above/below and deserves further monitoring. No signs of instability were observed at this layer today.

Pic 1: Cracking on a wind loaded pocket. Failure layer was small facets above the 1/4 crust. Hand shears on the facets immediately below the crust were clean and easy.

Pic 2: Start zone at Becker is still full of rocks. Note the lack of wind loading.

Pic 3: An old wind roll indicates this terrain feature along the ridge can get quite wind loaded. Today, new snow deposition was only 1-3 inches.