Observations from far NE ridge Mt. Lola.

We headed out to the Independence Lake Zone today for general snowpack assessment. We toured N-NE-E aspects in below treeline and near treeline terrain in the 6,600' to 8,500' elevation range. We encountered no informal signs of instability and we had no evidence of instability in our snowpit data. The snowpack was supportable for over snow travel but remained shallow with numerous but avoidable rocks, stumps and logs. Snowpack depth was less than one foot at 6,600' and rapidly increased to 2 to 2.5 feet deep above about 7,300'. 

In our snowpit (NE aspect at 8,398') we saw significant rounding of the previously problematic Nov 13 facet layer. This layer was well bonded to the snowpack above it and gaining strength at ground level, giving us no failures (CTN and ECTX results) in our snowpit tests. We were not able to repeat failures that have occurred on this layer in other locations since Wednesday Nov 18.

We saw some impressive surface hoar up to 3 cm in the lower meadows around 6,800'. With no snowfall in the forecast, this is not currently concerning. The rocks, logs, and other obstacles associated with the shallow snowpack were the main hazard we saw.