Near surface facets on Elephant's Hump.

I toured Elephant's Hump today to have a look at the progression of upper snowpack faceting on wind protected N to NE aspects near treeline and below treeline. I encountered the expected mix of firm surfaces in wind exposed areas and soft faceted snow surfaces in wind protected areas. Upper snowpack faceting appears to be progressing at a slow rate with not a huge amount change over the past couple of weeks. The most well developed facets are at the snow surface, with lesser developed facets below the near surface rain crust. I saw areas of old surface hoar, all knocked over from melt or wind. Surface facets provided some very minor loose dry sluffing off of ski turns.

While on tour from 11 am to 1 pm, ridgetop winds and winds on the summit at 9,000' were much less than forecast, moderate speed at best. The winds I observed were nowhere near as strong as the gale force winds reported from the nearby ridgetop wind gauge at Kirkwood during the same timeframe.

I traveled across a few E to SE aspects and saw no signs of snow surface melt.