Snowpack obs at Castle Pass- variable

I took a little hike up to Castle Pass to look at the snowpack today. Mostly to see how the snowpack varied with the terrain, and to see how consistent the snowpack is. I also thought this would be a good opportunity to dust off and crank up the observationizer machine.

As if on cue, it started snowing lightly as soon as I started hiking, around 1:30, and continued to snow until about 3:00. The precipitation type was consistently snow, very light. Wind was light from the north, sky was overcast, temps estimated to be close to, but just above freezing. 

S-ish facing slopes were bare, with the exception of well-shaded S facing slopes, which had a mix of snow and bare ground.

I dug into the snow on a NW aspect at Castle Pass, and found about 50cm of snow on the ground. HS 48cm, if you prefer. I saw four layers of distinctly weaker snow through the snowpack. The weakest of these layers was the second layer from the surface, approx 35cm from the ground. This layer was both the softest and the thickest weak layer I saw.

The snowpack was inconsistent, even on similar terrain. Nearby there were slopes with similar aspect, incline, and elevation that had no snow. And it looked like there was more consistent snow just a short distance downhill on N-ish aspects. Overall, the current snowpack seemed to be a checkerboard of snow/no snow.