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Weather Summary

Clear skies to start the day, overcast by 1100 with a few very light snow showers in the afternoon. Calm to light ridgetop winds out of the NW.

Snowpack Observations

Went to do a surface inventory pre-storm and to take a peek at persistent problem (3/14) where less snow has fallen in past two weeks. Stout crust exists (more about this crust below) on all aspects at lower elevations and all but northern sliver at middle and upper elevations. 2-5cm of snow from last round of snowfall is sitting on top of this crusts and has faceted. This combination is widespread and looks like it will be pretty touchy when loaded. I'd be surprised to see slides breaking deeper than the crust unless we get a rapid, heavy load. In areas without this crust, snowfall since 3/14 has all faceted significantly, and is slightly denser than the coarse-grained facets underneath, but not much. Feels like we are basically back to where we were before 3/14 snowfall in areas that are sheltered from wind. I avoided areas where wind drifts that formed in time since 3/14 are stiff and dense. At lower, and on solar 2/3 to 3/4 of middle and upper, thick, supportable MFcr formed from sun and ambient warm air. Snowpack has begun its transition and has been wetted to the ground at least once and lower portion of pack is moist and rounding. However, facets underneath the crusts are still bone dry and could still present a problem with enough loading

Avalanche Problems