November 3

Mineral Fork

Elevations, slope angles and aspects

7000-10400', angles over 35°, north and east facing aspects.

Snow conditions

Old snow line is around 8500'. Snow from the recent storm on October 26-27 lingers in the shade at 7500' or so. There is a stout melt freeze crust on all aspects retaining the old snow layering. Exceptions would be shallow spots on upper elevation shady and wind scoured, rocky terrain.

The recent snow was faceting from being in the shade almost all day in the room of doom Most pronounced was near the surface and at the interface with the stout mf crust. Surface hoar was also observed,

mineral-hoar

mostly below 10k and only in the shade.

Weather

Blue skies, mild temperatures and light to non exsistent wind.

Avalanche activity

Several old wet slides were observed, notably, two from the rocky cliffs in upper Santiago.

santiago-wet

Other smaller slides were observed in the room of doom.

Snow pit

That's a clean shear!

easy-shear

Snow profile

mineral-snow-profile

Evaluation

Stable snow was found on all aspects at all elevations. The only recent instability was small rollers on sun exposed aspects.

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November 3 journal

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