Mammoth Area -Minaret Vista - snow conditions

It was another warm and relatively clear day with light westerly winds. Air temperature was 37degF at 1200 at 9500ft. Options are limited to areas that I’m able to access and still do some proper stability tests, not to mention the write up,  but I have to say I’m sorry for not having a more wide ranging data set for points I’ve visited. Managing self-preservation and longevity I’ve found to be imperative in the ski business, as if you interested in the long term, many times during the doldrums of winter, one must be patient and wait for the key ingredient-snow-to fall.

I found the deepest snow to be around 90cm on a Northerly aspect around 9500ft and found an overall strengthening and healing snowpack. The structure still is basically a 2ft of stronger firmer snow above a foot of semi- faceted loose weak snow. The bottom 35cm of snow in this location was composed of rounding faceted grains. On CT and ECT tests I did not get any results on this interface. On a PST received a PST 40/100 END. So, there is a bit of propensity for failure at that interface, but the reality is that current conditions are dormant and unreactive.

Skied down towards Pumice campground in the Reds meadow valley and long as I stayed on northerly tilted terrain the snow surface was supportable and offered pretty good turns. I stopped at 8500ft as overall coverage got much thinner and obstacles much more plentiful. Skinning back out through alternating warmed up sunny surfaces and colder shady surfaces provided very arduous glopping on my skins.  Snow depths at 8500ft were around 30-50cm. A bit of minor roller balling on westerly terrain where exposed to the sun, sheltered northerly-easterly areas has a bit of near-surface faceting within the surface grains.

Snow pit @ 9,505ft, 340NNW Aspect, 31deg slope

HS: 90cm

CT26 Q2 @ 60cm

ECTX

PST 40/100 End