The primary force affecting the snowpack this week was the wind which has scoured and stripped snow from nearly every aspect in the mountains. We had a lengthy period of N and NE winds on Wednesday 12/12 that stripped the shady aspects and then Friday 12/14 an extreme wind event that blew from the S and SW with incredible velocities. All told a lot of the high elevation snow has been removed and taken down slope or eliminated due to sublimation in the atmosphere. Observations in the alpine/upper elevations yesterday of the Convict Lake area, showed snowpack depths ranging from 30-60cm with the remaining snow faceting, decomposing and becoming weaker with every day. Layers of thin wind board are dispersed throughout the area, but are not uniform in coverage. Thin snow coverage is most dramatically affected by temperature gradients between the ground ~0C and varying air temperatures which after prolonged time periods pulls the moisture out of the snow. Snow depths in the more heavily timbered areas and wind sheltered zones are much deeper, more stable and have been found to be from 90-120cm deep in the Mammoth area.