Weakening snowpack near Carson Pass

We hiked into the area near Frog Lake and Elephant's back to see how the snowpack continues to change and weaken during this dry period. Lower elevations and sun exposed aspects hold mostly bare ground with a few isolated patches of snow here and there. More shaded north aspects above 8000 ft. hold substantially more snow cover. Snowpack depths ranged from 18 to 24 inches in some areas but there are still plenty of rocks and other obstacles poking up through the snow surface. As we hiked up into the snow on these northerly aspects, we found a rain crust on the surface. In some areas we had to work hard to kick steps through the rain crust while in other areas it had weakened to the point that we would punch right through.

Below the surface rain crust, a thin layer of weak sugary snow (facets) has formed during the dry clear weather. Deeper in the snowpack what were once crusts and strong consolidated snow continue to lose strength. The exception is the layer of ice at the very bottom of the snowpack. While this setup may not pose much of an avalanche problem right now, it is building two of the needed ingredients for a future avalanche problem: weak faceted layers of snow and a firm icy bed surface below those weak layers. These layers will continue to change during this time between storms, and we will continue to monitor them.