Strengthening Facets on Incline Peak

Went for an afternoon solo tour up the north ridge of Incline Peak today to observe how the multitude of potential persistent weak layers have developed in below treeline terrain around the Mt Rose area. I meandered up mellow slopes toward the base of the north ridge finding heavier, sun effected snow on southerly aspects and colder, softer snow on north aspects. I found an open, sheltered north facing slope just below the ridge (pin location) and dug into the snow. HS was 86cm at my location. The 12/11 facets were rounding and did not show any signs of alarming instability with stability tests resulting in ECTN and CTB @ 67cm (above 12/11 PWL). I did not find any sign of the shallowly buried surface hoar that folks have been finding in other locations.

It was overcast all day with intermittent snow showers and blue sky only showing on rare occasions. Winds were out of the W and SW with small amounts of drifting snow observed and very isolated, shallow (2 inches) wind slabs cracking near ridge top. Driving over Mt Rose summit it was misting on my windshield. The snow surface at my pit location did not seem overly wet, however, shovel debris rolling downhill had “rollerball” like behavior.

Although the 12/11 PWL showed signs of strengthening, the structure of the snowpack here was still weak. It will be interesting to see if Monday’s storm load will reactivate this layer.