Training Day

Today we went to Core Lodge to find out how the east side of the Rockies was responding to the warm temps and strong westerly winds. We found a supportive snowpack with a melt freeze crust up to 1500m on the surface and saw cornices building on east facing ridge crests. When we dug down below tree line we found two surface hoar layers (persistent weak layers) in the upper snowpack that produced results and we confirmed that the entire snowpack sits on facets (loose large grained snow). No new avalanches were observed but due to the weak layers we found, we rode on small features below tree line and practiced our sled skills.