Snowpack obs from Crystal Lake

SNOWPACK OBSERVATION Crystal Lake Mammoth Lakes
Submission Info Thursday, January 11, 2018 - 8:30am

Contributor

Mitch Quiring

Trees above Crystal Lake 37° 35' 44.88" N, 119° 1' 27.1776" W

See map: Google Maps

Snowpit Observations

More detailed information about the snowpack:

9,500ft @ Crystal Lake (E-facing). Thick top layer of fluff (12+") sitting on a slightly firmer layer down below, however, they are bonded well. Skiing through provided no indication of instability, no obvious signs of wind-load, fracturing, splintering, whumping, etc. Perfect light fluff skiing down to the lake. Past the lake on the other side of Crystal Crag provided a slightly different story, a top 4" layer easily fracutred off with body weight of a skier, sliding on a bulletproof rain layer. Fun day out! Photos of the small slides beyond Crystal are included

Snowpit or crown profile photo or graph:

Weather Observations

Cloud Cover:

75% of the sky covered by clouds

Air temperature:

Below Freezing

Wind Speed:

Light

Precipitation:

None

Air temperature trend:

Warming

Wind Direction:

West

Accumulation rate:

None

More detailed information about the weather:

Heavy clouds kept the temperature low for most of the morning, with that eventually breaking for the afternoon. a very light sprinkle/mist struck the area around 11:30a.