Mammoth - North Road Tour

Road tour Mammoth north to assess access, Lower & Mid elevation coverage, and avalanche activity. Snow below 8000’ becoming increasingly thin, patchy, or no existent. This is especially true the further you move east of the Crest or north or south of Mammoth. Snow depth around Mammoth @ 8000 is ~ 1 meter or ~ 3 feet on northerly aspects, closest to the Crest. Tamarack trailhead has plenty of snow-coverage. Lakes ice is breaking or open at 8600’. As you move eastward, snow depth quickly decreases. Earthquake Domes’ northerly aspects becoming quite patchy at road elevation (~8000’) and becoming bare on further descent. Snow is still visible on the Easterly to Northeasterly aspects of Chicken Wing but looks like the snowpack is becoming interrupted and broken. Snow still enveloping the lower end of Devil’s Slide below Carson Peak but has melted out on the apron.  Several small point releases in and around rock bands on the Easterly/Northeasterly face of Carson Peak initiating around 10,000. Mt. Wood’s upper and middle slopes are well covered but the lower slopes are no longer snow-covered (below ~8500’). Tioga Pass is still closed at the winter closure, lower elevation ski descents (i.e., V-Bowl) have melted out below 8000’.  Coverage up high looks good. Lundy Canyon is open almost to the trailhead where the road is soft and in places still covered by drifts. Can access the snow to the south but Noted a large debris field at the headwaters, looked liked two separate debris fields possibly merged. One possible large cornice release and the other a possible Glide Slide but the starting point was out of sight but the debris field was quite large (D3 to 3.5). Virginia Lakes road is open to the upper campground and has good coverage and the best access to the snow from the trailhead. One isolated release visible from the road on a Easterly aspect, elevation ~10,500’, likely failed during frontal passage. (D1).