Luther Pass Storm Snow

Location Name: 
Powderhouse
Region: 
Luther Pass Area (including Job and Freel)
Date and time of observation: 
Fri, 02/03/2017 - 12:00
Location Map: 
United States
38° 47' 3.0336" N, 119° 58' 42.186" W
See map: Google Maps
US


Red Flags: 
Recent loading by new snow, wind, or rain
Observation made by: Public
Snowpit Observations
More detailed information about the snowpack: 

New snow at Luther varied from around 4" at the base to ~8-10" above 8500 ft in protected areas.  Wind drifts and filling resulted in new snow depths of up to 2' in places.  Wind was mild at lower elveations buit was consistent and with gale force gusting near top, significant wind transport was occuring above 8500ft.  Storm snow was moderately dense and exhibiting slab characteristics, cracking around skis on the way up and with test kicks but not propagating.  A couple quick pits on the way up also showed the new storm weakness at aroun 6-10" in protected areas. 

I dug a pit in a small, slightly wind loaded open area at 9150 ft, NW aspect at 24 degrees.  I did not do any progation tests in this snow:
CT3 Q2 @ 25cm within the storm snow
CT21 Q2 (pretty clean though) @ 65cm at old snow interface

We stopped short of the ridge so as to avoid any additional risks/wind slabs, and skiied the slope conservatively through low angle terrain, and the snow skiied well.  Real nice.  Saw some minor cracking in snow on the way down but nothing propagated

Snowpack photos: 
Weather Observations
Blowing Snow: 
Yes
Cloud Cover: 
100% of the sky covered by clouds
Air temperature: 
Below Freezing
Wind Speed: 
Moderate
Precipitation: 
Snow
Air temperature trend: 
Static
Wind Direction: 
Southwest
Accumulation rate: 
Less than 1 in. per hour