Yesterday’s observations on north facing slopes in the glades off the Knob, showed a variable snow surface with many areas of softer recycled powder, cavities next to rocks harboring well developed depth hoar and firm to icy wind crusts. On more sun exposed slopes, patches of soft corn had formed above soft snow and supportable wind slab. The drainage channels observed on the southwest slopes of Mammoth Mountain were not found on this north facing slope. Continued clear days and cool clear nights on sheltered north facing slopes are favorable conditions for faceting to continue.
The snowpack on the slopes we observed was mostly pencil hardness throughout the 80 cm snowpack. The top 10 cm was near surface facets and facets at the surface and large facets at the base of the pack. Despite a snowpack composed entirely of faceted crystals, hand hardness was generally pencil with a fairly uniform slab sitting on 10 cm or so of larger faceted grains. Compression and extended column tests did not produce any results.
