November 3
Gobblers Knob looked white from my house so I went up to see how much snow there actually was.
The Bowman trail is packed down and icy in the shade with up to 6" on the sides of the trail starting at about 6500'.
The sunny west facing aspects have melted out.
I ascended Pole canyon from the trail junction. There's enough snow at 8'000' to require snowshoes.
The snow is damp from that elevation all the way to the summit.
A snowpit done mid slope on the Cabin run. There's 12" total snow. It's capped with a skiff of fresh. A variable crust of up to an inch thick is found in places under the skiff. 6'' of damp settled snow above another thin crust then, small grained facets, another stout melt freeze crust, with a few inches of wet large grained facets, make up the cover at that location.
I was able to make snowballs at 10'000', although the upper layering is somewhat drier at that elevation. Layers are well bonded. The only indications of instability were scattered wind drifts, which would crack out occasionally. Northeast facing Alexander has deeper drifting near the ridge line and some cornice formation.
Future concerns would be related to temperature and the amount of any new snow received. The interface of old and new snow would be the candidate for instability.
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