Castle Peak Observations

Location Name: 
North Side-Castle Peak
Region: 
Donner Summit Area
Date and time of observation: 
Mon, 01/12/2015 - 12:00
Location Map: 
United States
39° 21' 50.292" N, 120° 20' 22.668" W
See map: Google Maps
US



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

Snow coverage on the North side of Castle Peak is good above 7800'.  The overall snowpack is made up mostly of rounded snow grains and a variety of crusts.  The near crust facets and near surface facets that were common over a week ago were not today at this location.  We experienced few to no results with a variety of snowpack tests.  There was a small slab avalanche observed in one of the gullies on the north side.  The crown and debris appeared rounded and many days old, an avalanche professional in the area noted that it was not present 1 week ago.  The crown was around 15-20cm deep, 20m wide and it was unclear what the trigger could have been.  There were many snowmobile tracks and ski tracks in the area and could have also been cornice related.  The debris ran full path with a small debris pile at the bottom of the gully.

Photo#1 and #2:  Small slab avalanche in 1 of the north gullies on the north side of Castle Peak. 

Photo#3:  Poor coverage below 8000' on south aspects with rocks, dirt and open water. 

Snowpit or crown profile photo or graph: 
Snowpack photos: 
Weather Observations
Blowing Snow: 
No
Cloud Cover: 
75% of the sky covered by clouds
Air temperature: 
Below Freezing
Wind Speed: 
Light
Precipitation: 
None
Air temperature trend: 
Warming
Wind Direction: 
West
More detailed information about the weather: 

A brief period of very light snow fell from 11:30-12pm.