Warm, wet, and windy at Carson Pass

Fluctuating rain/snow levels observed at Carson Pass today. Between the sno-park and Elephant's Back, it switched back and forth from rain to snow several times with more rain than snow. All aspects and elevations traveled had an inch of wet snow at the surface - which at least was preventing significant wind transport. Only a few saturated inches of new snow existed near the sno-park, but this increased to 8-12 inches with elevation gain and on leeward aspects. Where new snow was the deepest, there was also 1-2 inches of snow from Saturday that showed some evidence of faceting. Hand shears and shovel tilts consistently failed at both the upper and lower interfaces of Saturday's snow. These facets were not large nor well developed, and were easy to press into clumps. Two ECTs in Elephant's Back bowl did not propagate, though shovel shears and tilts on the remaining columns were similar to those observed elsewhere. The older October snow was generally strong everywhere I looked - like a thick melt freeze layer that could be broken into individual grains with a few angles remaining visible.

Pic 1: A shovel tilt with about a foot of new snow. I performed several of these as I traveled, and they all failed either at the bottom or top of Saturday's snow, without any tapping required. None of the failures were textbook "pool table" planar, and the weak layer was easy to press into clumps.

Pic 2: Just enough new snow to travel the entire way on skis, though close to the sno-park it was pushing it.

Pic 3: The main Elephant's Back bowl still has a bunch of rocks, but also has enough snow for careful skiing. Many of the short pitches off Frog Lake Ridge also had decent lines of continuous snow, though I only viewed these from a distance. I couldn't see any other surrounding terrain due to cloud cover and precip.