Mammoth Area - Sherwins- snow conditions

Toured up above Mammoth Rock in the Sherwins today after a great morning of skiing and gaining some perspective of overall conditions at the ski area.  Snowfall was pretty much continous all day in the Mammoth area with periods of high intensity throughout the day. The sheltered northerly slopes within the trees above Mammoth Rock had relatively calm to light winds with the occasional gust that would release tree bombs upon the slopes. It was 26.5F at 3pm. Similiar to Josh's findings on earthquake dome, lower elevations harbored around 2ft of snow while the upper slopes averaged around 4ft of snow. Breaking trail today was probably much easier than folks had it a few days ago before the snowpack started to settle. Ski penetration was 40-45cm. If you got off your skis, you'd still go waist deep to the ground.

Deep snow immersion hazards and buried obstacles should be some of the main talking points with your group while venturing in the backcountry right now.

Did not observe any collapsing or whoompfing of the snowpack during our tour. I was already starting to observe settlement cones around the base of trees and a decent amount of tree bombing which will help consolidate the snowpack.

I was able to release a few small isolated panels of fresh soft wind slab adjacent to rock outcroppings or near the base of cliffs. Nothing I observed was greater than 8-10" in depth or more than 10-20ft wide and running short distances (10-20ft). Visibility into the alpine was impossible but I suspect up high in bigger and more extreme terrain, larger wind slabs would be encountered.