Observations from Rubicon Peak

Location Name: 
Rubicon Peak
Region: 
West Shore Area
Date and time of observation: 
Sun, 04/07/2013 - 11:15
Location Map: 
United States
38° 59' 26.304" N, 120° 7' 46.308" W
See map: Google Maps
US


Red Flags: 
Observation made by: Forecaster
Snowpit Observations
More detailed information about the snowpack: 

The snow surface in this areas was a combination of melt-freeze and rain crust all the way to the summit. Very hard crust covered the snow surface in nearly all areas above 7,800'. Evidence of a strong overnight refreeze existed at all elevations traveled from 6,940' to ~9,000'. A few cm of recent new snow existed on wind protected E aspects above 8,500'. Below 8,500' significant amounts of unfrozen wet snow remain below surface melt-freeze crust.

Photos 1 & 2: No areas of wind loading along the NW ridge near the summit. Snow surface was melt-freeze and rain crust knife hard and 6 cm thick. Ski edge penetration less than 0.5 cm.

Photo 3: E aspect just below the summit rock at ~9,000'. Recent new snow amounts of 5 cm with some evidence of previous wind loading. The top 2 cm were in melt phase. Bonding of this recent storm snow to the melt-freeze crust below was very good.

Photo 4: At 8,450' on an east aspect (attached lat/long) the snowpack became marginally supportable on skis with boot top depth penetration into wet snow.

Snowpack photos: 
Weather Observations
Blowing Snow: 
No
Cloud Cover: 
25% of the sky covered by clouds
Air temperature: 
Above Freezing
Wind Speed: 
Strong
Precipitation: 
None
Air temperature trend: 
Warming
Wind Direction: 
Southwest
Accumulation rate: 
More detailed information about the weather: 

Cloud cover much less than forecast with significant clearing over the eastern 2/3rds of the forecast area.