Crusts, Wet Snow, and Cold Soft Snow on Incline Lake Peak

Today we wanted to see an area with sheltered, cold, sunny, and wind-affected snow to get an idea of how the variety of snow surfaces might respond to the upcoming snowfall. Incline Lake Peak provided multiple aspects, elevations, and exposures where we saw the expected mix of conditions.

The sheltered north-facing slopes near and below treeline still held soft, cold unconsolidated snow. We also dug into the snowpack on these slopes to see how the buried weak layers have changed during the warmer weather. We could see and feel a thin layer of old sugary snow (facets) and some small collapsed surface hoar. However, snowpit tests, ski cuts, and general observations did not show any lingering signs of instability on these layers. On the contrary, they all indicated that these layers have bonded to the snow around them. 

Other more sun-exposed aspects below treeline had melt-freeze crusts in the morning. By early afternoon some of these had softened into smooth wet snow. Some loose wet snow instabilities like roller balls and pinwheels had occurred on a few of these sunny slopes in previous days.

When we ventured into more exposed areas along the ridge, we found widespread wind-sculpted snow, sastrugi, and firm wind-pressed snow. We also felt the winds increasing. On the sun-exposed side of the ridge, firm melt-freeze crusts existed.