Bishop Creek-Haebagger's Glades

SNOWPACK OBSERVATION Haebagger's Glades Bishop Creek
Submission Info Sunday, March 4, 2018 - 12:00pm

Contributor

Rick Ziegler

Red Flags:

Whumphing noises, shooting cracks, or collapsing

Recent loading by new snow, wind, or rain

Haebagger's Glades 37° 14' 51.972" N, 118° 32' 45.366" W

See map: Google Maps

Snowpit Observations

More detailed information about the snowpack:

Decided to check out coverage and snowpack in the Bishop Creek drainage.

30cm of new snow noted at the parking area, 8400 feet. Air temp at 9:55am, -5 degrees C. Sunny. Calm with occasional light wind gusts. Clear skies. Signs of scouring from strong South winds during the last storm. We noted no recent avalanche activity during this tour.

We toured up the west facing approach road, above the homes on Haebagger Lane. Ski penetration 0-15cm. Still alot of rocks and sage brush poking through. I'm guessing snow on this road will be gone within a week. Higher up coverage was better, however repeated probing found 30-90cm total snow depth.

While touring just below ridge line, on a N/NW aspect, from 9800-10,100 feet, we noted several large whumps. Some of which sent small, shooting cracks as far as 10m ahead of us. We stopped at 10,100 ft. Air temp at noon was -7 degrees C, with light winds.

Dug a pit at 10,100 ft on a low angle, NW facing slope. Total snow depth=88cm.

From 88cm (surface) to 65 cm snow was fist hard and unaffected by recent winds.

From 65 cm to 45 cm snow was 4 finger hardness.

From 45cm to ground, snow was made up of 2-3mm, unconsolidated facets.

We skiied low angle, N and NW facing slopes, hitting many rocks, stumps and shrubs below 9500ft.