Observations from Waterhouse Peak

Location Name: 
Waterhouse Peak
Region: 
Luther Pass Area (including Job and Freel)
Date and time of observation: 
Tue, 02/17/2015 - 11:35
Location Map: 
United States
38° 46' 37.02" N, 119° 57' 56.304" W
See map: Google Maps
US



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

The snowpack in this area below 8,000' is melting out back to near the pre-storm snowpack amounts observed on Jan 25. Snowpack below 8,000' on NW-N-NE aspects is patchy and in a melt-freeze state. Continuous snowcover is found above 8,000'. A testpit dug in the vicinity of the detailed snowpit profile from Feb 10 (N aspect, 9,440', below treeline terrain) yielded no evidence of instability. At noon, 1 to 2 inches of surface wet snow on top of supportable melt-freeze crust was observed on ENE-E-SE aspects up to the summit at ~9,500'.

Photo 1: Hard ECTN result with the only non-propagating failure just below the Feb 8 rain crust. No evidence of faceting observed at the failure layer interface. Lower density layer of rounding facets remains just below the recent old/new snow interface, but no longer fails in snowpit tests.

Photo 2: Patchy snow cover on a N aspect at 7,800'.

Photo 3: Continuous snow cover on a N aspect at 8,200'.

 

 

Snowpit or crown profile photo or graph: 
Snowpack photos: 
Weather Observations
Blowing Snow: 
No
Cloud Cover: 
Clear
Air temperature: 
Above Freezing
Wind Speed: 
Calm
Air temperature trend: 
Warming