June Lake Area- Snowpack and Weather conditions-Dream Bowl

Solstice was a windy and grey affair in the Eastern Sierra today. We traveled in the June Lake area and up to the eastern side of San Joaquin Mountain and Dream Bowl. It was relatively warm, 38.4F at 1230pm at 9,205ft and 31F at 10,245ft at 2pm. Variable surface conditions abound from grabby surface temperature crust in the lower elevation trees, to hard wind board in the alpine and a bit of breakable crust mixed in to boot. There was still some residual powder in northerly aspects in sheltered areas above 9300ft that made the hiking worth it.

I’d say the main observation today was the strong winds from the South and West and the erratic and swirling directions that were encountered on the leeward side of dramatic topography. There was cascading spindrift coming off the cliffs on Dream Mountain all afternoon when we were up there. Not a whole lot interesting to report as far as the snowpack goes, the rain crust we’ve been talking about was not very apparent or pronounced where we travelled today.

Snow Pit @ 10,245ft Due East aspect, 33deg slope HS: 145

See Snow profile

There were two very firm wind board layers sandwiched between some looser snows in the upper foot of the snowpack. There was a 2cm crust, not an ice layer; 25cm below the surface that I surmise was the remnant Dec 12th rain crust we’ve been talking about. At least in this location there was not much left of it anymore, but there was looser, slightly faceted snow beneath this interface. These surface wind board layers were reactive in block tests, but that’s about it. Stomped with skis on the upper layer above my hole where the snow was unsupported and I only got some minor cracking. It was a solid right side up pack from 118cm down to the ground. Overall the snow felt welded, hard, and stubborn to non-reactive in the arena.  No instability noted anywhere on the tour today.