Observation from Carson Pass

Toured near Elephants Back on Carson Pass today looking at wind slab and dug a big hole to look at the buried weak layer. We found a breakable meltfreeze crust on open east aspects buried about 10 cms below new snow. There was plenty of completely unconsolidated powder on north facing slopes near and below tree line. East facing cornices were relatively small, soft, and sensitive. 

Photo 1: Unconsolidated powder on a sheltered north slope.

Photo 2: This east facing cornice broke wider than I expected (and wider than I could capture with this photo). 

Photo 3: Clouds moved in and out most of the day. There were brief spells of snow and briefer moments of sun. 

Photo 4: The top of that probe is 340 cms. I measured up to 360 cms of snow in this location. Snow was right sight up for a solid 160 cms until the crusts. The upper most crust was still stout. The crusts and PWLs were around 200 cms in the snowpack. I found the facets under the lowest crust to be the weakest of the layers (and the only one that seemed to be still acting like a weak layer). 

Photo 5: PST 60/160 END down 155. 

Photo 6: There's a ton of snow on top of this weak layer, but it's still sugary.