Mount Lola observations

We hiked Mount Lola today to look at the weakening snowpack on northerly aspects. Moving up the trail we began to encounter near continuous snow cover at about 7,800' and had very continuous snow cover on N-NE aspects above 8,000'-8,200'. As in other locations southerly aspects are bare ground and northerly aspects hold the existing snowpack. East aspects are a mixed bag with snow cover increasing above 8,500'.

We dug a snowpit in the summit bowl on a N aspect just below 8,900' in near treeline terrain. As expected we found a mix of eroding rain crusts and weak faceted snow crystals in the mid and upper portions of the snowpack. These weak layers are what we are continuing to monitor around the forecast area. These potentially problematic weak layers continue to develop are are becoming increasingly weak during the current prolonged dry spell.