NSF at Mount Judah

Toured in the Mount Judah and Donner Peak area today to look for wind loading from last nights storm, and to continue to monitor the 1/4 crust and facet layers.

After observing wind loading and then intentionally triggering a wind slab avalanche at Wildflower Ridge (see posted Avalanche Observation from today), I focused my tour and observations on lower angled terrain away from the wind loaded ridgetops. 2-4" of new snow was present in most areas today with the 1/4 rain crust underneath it. Lower angle terrain made for enjoyable skiing as I was rarely pushing through the soft new snow down onto the crust below. Any areas that were exposed to scouring had no new snow on them, so protected terrain was preferred.

Quick pits targeting the distribution of facets below the 1/4 rain crust found Fist hard near surface facets under the crust in nearly every location I looked today. This was in Below and Near Treeline terrain (6800'-8000') on NW, N, NE, E and even one SE facing spot too. In nearly all of these location the 1/4 rain crust was Fist to 4F hard and seemed somewhat eroded compared to recent observations. At one location on a sun exposed E facing pitch I experienced a localized whumph on this layer- it may have been more of a collapse of the crust rather than the facet layer, but it seemed noteworthy.