Snow Pack Shirley Canyon

Today we toured up to a north-facing aspect of Shirley Canyon and dug a pit to the ground at 6532’.  We had a total snow depth of 170 centimeters. 170 to 45 cm was snow from the most recent storm, which was comprised of precipitation particles and decomposing fragments. The hand hardness went from fist to 1 finger progressively deeper in the slope.  There was a crust forming throughout the day at the top of the snowpack due to warm air temperatures.  Below the new snow at 45 cm we observed a couple of un-uniform crust layers with rounding facets above and below them.  The December 11th weak layer was found at 35 cm from the ground which is now deep in the snowpack after this last storm.  It was gaining strength before the recent snowfall and appears to still be on that progression of stabilization.