Weak snowpack structure observations on the Donner Peak

Wanting to continue observing our rapidly weakening snowpack I toured into the N face of Donner Peak, up the North ridge and to the summit. The snowpack- as we are all aware continues to degrade in cohesion, this led to comically poor skiing conditions, oftentimes a pole plant or weighted ski would result in the opening of a facet trap door around rocks and vegetation. The only layer differentiations observed was a ice layer around 12cm from the base, and some areas with a melt freeze crust layer on top that was up to 5cm thick - otherwise the snowpack continues to be completely unconsolidated. Surface hoar was observed in protected areas on West thru East aspects even this late into the day. It will be interesting, once we receive measurable precipitation to see how our snowpack reacts. While there were 2 or 3 enjoyable turns the ski quality was particularly challenging given the hollow nature of the snowpack and variable surface structure.