Obs from Panorama Dome

SNOWPACK OBSERVATION Mammoth Lakes
Submission Info Volunteer Observer Sunday, February 16, 2020 - 1:00pm

Contributor

Ryan Huetter

37° 37' 7.8816" N, 118° 59' 45.0168" W

See map: Google Maps

Snowpit Observations

More detailed information about the snowpack:

Toured around base of Panorama Dome for formal snowpack obs with AIARE L1 group, in the vain hope of finding any dry snow.

Surface conditions are a mixed bag, with tracks on most slopes that have refrozen. All slopes had moist surface snow, which by 1:00pm was already developing a thin refrozen crust on northern aspects. We dug into a slope at 8500', on a NNE aspect and found wet grains down to 40cm, and an HS of 90cm. Didn't I dig here back in December and see that much or more? Rounding facets and crusts were the name of the game here, with several CTH results failing down 22cm on facets below a melt freeze crust.

The few turns we made down were surprisingly soft, as the zipper crust had only just started setting up, though being exciting about hot facets shows just how desperate we are for some fresh snow.