Incline Peak Observations

We toured Incline Peak this morning to look at the progression of near surface facets in this area and to check on solar aspect snow surface melt above 8,400'. Touring around the greater NE slopes of Incline Peak and the Ginny Lake drainage we encountered the expected mix of melt-freeze, firm wind packed surfaces, and soft near surface facets. We choose a near treeline, shaded N aspect location at 9,230' with a moderate amount of wind protection for our snowpit location. Here we found well developed near surface facets making up the top 4 inches of the snowpack. Below that, the snowpack quickly transitioned to strong rounded grains. Even though the top 10 inches of the snowpack was F to 4F hard, only the top 4 inches were faceted.

Moving up to the summit ridge, we encountered moderate speed SW winds. I saw some isolated, tiny amounts of blowing snow (saltation) that played no roll in changing the surface conditions. Cornices that once existed along this ridgetop had been eroded by previous NE wind events. In only one small area were the cornices still overhung and of any appreciable size.

Upper elevation SE aspect terrain off the summit showed no signs of significant snow surface melt at midday. We traversed across a wind protected SSE aspect between 8,400' and 8,500' around 12:15pm, This slope had only minor amounts of snow surface melt at that time.