November 25
Willow-West Monitor
Elevations, slope angles and aspects
7800-10200', angles over 35°, north, east and west facing
Snow conditions
2-16" total snow pack, increasing with elevation gain.Snow line remains at about 8k on the shady side. The most snow was found in upper elevations, sheltered and shady. Off aspects and elevations below about 9500' have crusts of variable density and thickness.Sun exposed did soften with warming at mid elevations.
North facing aspects had a coupla inches of soft, recrystalized old snow, with patches of wind crust. Those areas provided reasonable skiing with a supportable(shallow) base.
Weather
Bluebird, with light wind and mild temperatures
Snow pit
Evaluation
The early October storm melted off the PC ridges. It appeared that one later storm also melted since, the snow pack is so shallow. Near surface faceting is widespread, even on the off aspects, in the shallow pack. The effect is slowly working down, dissolving the underside of crusts and rotting out all old snow.
Future instability would be dependent on bonding of old-new layering and snow amounts. Crust-facet interface experiencing rapid loading would result in collapse failure.
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