Observations from Ebbetts Pass

Approaching from the Markleeville side, continuous enough snow cover to contribute to potential future avalanche problems didn't begin until around 8000ft. The closer to the Pacific Crest I got, the more continuous the snow cover was. Ebbets Peak and the ridge to Tryon Peak had enough snow for recreating on, and farther south above Highland Lakes looked even better. A snowpit above Dorothy Lake, and several informal obs, showed a facet/crust snowpack similar to other recent reports. The most faceted snowpack was on the steepest, most shaded N/NE aspects.

Pic 1: Above Kinney Reservoir (8300ft), enough snow to contribute to potential future avalanche problems. I did observe some continuous snow down to 8000ft. Ebbetts Peak is in the background to the right, and the ridge to Tryon Peak is in the background to the left.

Pic 2: A cold, shallow snowpack on the steepest face of Ebbetts Peak. Highland Peak (connected to Silver Peak) is in the background. My snowpit was dug on a less steep slope, where there was some indirect sun influence and a slightly stronger snowpack.

Pic 3 and snow profile: Two weak (facet) layers in the upper half of the still shallow snowpack. On steeper, more shaded slopes, the crust between the two weak layers was mostly faceted away.

Pic 4: More continuous coverage to the south above Highland Lakes.