Reports of poor snow stability continue to come in from the Rock Creek area. Sudden collapse on large depth hoar continue to be reported in Rock Creek on north facing slopes above 9,600 ft. Depending on the amount of water content of the new snow, additional loading of this weak snowpack could create dangerous avalanche conditions due to persistent buried weak layers.
Observations from a snowpit dug at 11,400 ft near Half Moon Pass in Rock Creek reported up to 5 to 6 ft. of snow on the north facing slopes. The same crusts from a month earlier were still evident and a 3 cm surface crust had over 2 inches of facets below the crust. There was 4 to 8 inches of depth hoar at the bottom but compression tests and a Rutschblock test yielded test scores in the 28-29 range for compression tests, an ECT (ECTX)and an RB7 score.
Above Lake Mary yesterday, there was near surface facets on shaded north facing slopes at 9,800 ft. and a thin layer of large solid facets on the ground that did not react in extended column tests.